After overcoming the conflict between East and West, Russia's intelligence refocused on economic espionage in Germany. The main field of interest - the advanced technology of German energy.
German firms and government agencies of Germany have become increasingly targets of economic espionage. That was the conclusion experts of the Federal Office for Protection of the Constitution in its latest annual report. In doing so they pay attention to the increasing importance of the Internet and computer networks for obtaining useful information.
Economic Espionage
Economic espionage - in four out of five cases - is engaged mainly competing firms - and their domestic and foreign. But not only. According to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany, which plays an important role in the European Union and NATO, with its large number of high-tech companies - and the object of increased interest of foreign intelligence?
The report says that the most active in Germany, China and Russia are working intelligence. Heritage in Germany and special services from the Near, Middle and Far East. Moreover, in conditions of economic crisis indicate the German experts, namely the role of economic espionage has increased markedly. Thomas Menk of the German Union "Security Economics" comes from the fact that "the desire to obtain information, providing competitive advantages in an economic crisis hardly diminishes.
Rather the opposite. It is believed that the economic damage caused by the national economy of the FRG illegal downloading of commercial information, is at least 50 billion euros per year. This is a very rough estimate, since many companies and academic institutions and do not suspect that the victim of computer espionage.
Economic Putin's special program
In an interview with Welt am Sonata managing director of counterintelligence Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Burkhart Even said that economic and financial crisis, according to his observation, the government of Russia has increased the demand for sensitive information from Germany, which led to increased efforts of the Moscow security forces. He called it "a real and specific threat."
Particularly interested in the Russian intelligence German energy, in particular the latest developments in renewable energy and energy efficiency by which Germany holds a leading position in the world, as well as the German strategy of diversifying energy supplies.
In addition, Russia's security services, according to counterintelligence Germany, carried out an operation a cover for the family of energy companies, particularly Gasport, which has long and unsuccessfully sought release on the German market, final consumers of energy.
Welt is Sonata quoted Vladimir Putting in October 2007 with the appointment of Mikhail Frodo, Head of Foreign Intelligence Service that one of the tasks of the RAF should be monitoring trends in the global economy and work in the interests of Russian companies abroad.
The importance of economic espionage is said and former SVR chief Sergey Lebedev. He called this kind of information is invaluable, quoted Lebedev's Welt am Sonata, and received the scientific and technical information and related technologies - have an economic effect, which is expressed in numbers with many zeros.
Human factor
An example is the case with a former engineer in the aerospace giant EADS Werner G., who was recruited by Russia's GRU military intelligence and handed it to her in exchange for money and the "erotic services" documentation for new helicopters. He was sentenced to 11 months probation. Court considered a frank recognition Werner.
This case also shows that Russia's security services do not only online spying. With all the vast possibilities of the Internet the most reliable source of relevant information remains a man - an employee of engineering, automotive, pharmaceutical companies, plant solar cells, where it is not necessary - a major concern. In many cases, technology leaders act just average and even small German firms.
They are victims of economic espionage in 80 per cent of all cases have become known, the executive director of the Union "Security Economics" in Baden-Wurttemberg Stefan Shot sky. Consulting firm Corporate Trust from Munich called an even greater proportion - 96.1 percent.
With a few naive and trusting small and medium-sized enterprises Russia's easier to work with the scouts. Michael Thriller (Michael Thriller) of the Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution at a special seminar for their managers said that "for professional scouts from the outside trying to get access to your information is much easier to purposefully and gracefully to recruit a staff member companies to enter into the system rather than through the technical tricks.”
According to a recently conducted by the Institute of Ferdinand Steinke’s from Stuttgart (Ferdinand-Steinbeis-Institut) study, a classic portrait avid to recruit staff looks like this: him 41 years, he had 10 years working for the firm, not satisfied with the slow progress up the career ladder and its material position, who believes that it underestimates the bosses.
It happens that the services and Russia's special services have interns on German firms or seconded to Germany for the exchange of experts. Inserted in a special proprietary computer flash drive - and that's that.
Work on the "neighbors"
Professional scouts as Russia, as before, working under the umbrella of diplomatic missions, consular offices, trade offices, in the role of journalists. German counter-intelligence, as a rule, knows which of diplomats or journalists working on the "neighbors". But: not caught - not a thief. And if caught, then expelled from the country, as it was, for example, with two members of Russia's diplomatic missions to NATO.
Moscow's reaction if this is always the same. The response plus the expulsion of anger and indignation, as in the case. Head of Russia's representative to NATO Dmitry Rogozin called the prosecution of its employees "provocation" and "absurd" reports Deutsche Welle.
Of course, it is equally absurd to call the representatives of Russia and the message that, according to the German counter-intelligence, intelligence Russia recruited from among the citizens of the FRG "perspective" of German immigrants - those that are in line with their qualifications may be or already were at work in "interesting" areas of the German economy, administration, science, politics or the armed forces. In the Office for the Protection of the Constitution are known cases of such recruitment before moving to Germany.