Years ago, in my military years....you would get a presentation every year or two on spy networks, and how they recruit people to for spy operations. The key at that time....was military operations and classified activity. At some point about twenty years ago....some folks woke up and began to realize that the spy business had shifted and changed. It was now about gaining technology, and insider information (even marketing and stocks information). Some folks understood the threat....others just laughed.
I noticed today via N-TV (German commercial news) a small piece on Chinese spies now operating in Germany.....against the Bundestag.
If you had suggested this being a big problem a decade ago....folks would have laughed. Now? They take it serious.
The head of the German Office of the Protection of the Constitution (Hans-Georg Maaßen) put out a warning message to German officials....noting that there is a attempt to "infiltrate parliaments, ministries and authorities in particular".
Last year, I was reading over the bio of a Chinese entrepreneur who'd risen over a single decade from a small-time street vendor....to a billionaire. Nothing about this rise made any sense....unless you sat and figured that he'd acquired insider information, and been at the right point for dozens of transactions and investment opportunities. His network? It's not clear but I would take a guess that he had some great hackers that he employed and they were always looking for the next candidate to 'watch'.
For a decade, I've sat and watch German intellectuals and politicians continually remark to the general public that Germany can no longer compete at the industrial level....that it's their remarkable technology sector which is going to continue German economic success.
The problem with this 'speech' is that the spy networks are fairly active and that every single day....some spy is in the middle of some technology development that the Germans figured was 'safe'. In fact, it was so 'safe' that it was openly be discussed in Bundestag channels and they were hoping to jump-start their little secret advancement and market it across the globe.
How many Chinese spies are in Germany? N-TV has no idea. There might be a hundred.....there might be a thousand.
No comments:
Post a Comment