Security News > 2008 > November > Espionage claims by telecoms company
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/telecoms/3448534/Espionage-claims-by-telecoms-company.html By Russell Hotten The Daily Telegraph 12 Nov 2008 Altimo, whose advisory board includes a former head of Britain's GCHQ listening station and a former deputy chief executive of Vodafone, said it has received evidence of wide-ranging attempts to discredit the company. Altimo alleges the interception of emails and tapping of telephone calls, surveillance of executives and shareholders, and payments to journalists to write damaging articles. The claims come in the wake of of Altimo's long-running dispute with Oslo-based Telenor, the Nordic region's largest phone company. The two companies are locked in a dispute over the expansion of a joint venture, VimpelCom, Russia's second-largest mobile phone business. Altimo is part of Alfa Group, run by Mr Fridman, one of four Russian businessmen involved in a bitter dispute with oil giant BP earlier this year. Yesterday, Andrei Kosogov, Altimo's chairman, wrote an open letter to Telenor's chairman, Harald Norvik, asking him to explain what Telenor's role has been and "what activity your agents have directed at Altimo". He said that he was "reluctant to believe" that Mr Norvik or his colleagues would have sanctioned any of the activities complained of. Evidence of an alleged campaign was contained in documents sent to each member of Altimo's advisory board some time before October. The board is chaired by ex-GCHQ director Sir Francis Richards, and includes Lord Hurd, a former UK Foreign Secretary, and Sir Julian Horn-Smith, a founder of Vodafone. [...] ______________________________________________ Visit the InfoSec News Security Bookstore Best Selling Security Books and More! http://www.shopinfosecnews.org