4/17/08

Below are a few letters we received on topics that appeared in the past few weeks. They capture the essence of how many readers say they feel. 

February 29, 2008

After several employees of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory acknowledged falling prey to nefarious emails that sought to infect their computers and steal corporate information, they were then told it was part of a broader espionage scheme. The government research organization said that it had been one aspect of a "sophisticated cyber attack" to gain access to several national laboratories and institutions.

No business is immune. While most of the attention is on beefing up information technology units to deal with cyber threats, many smaller-to-mid-sized companies are losing ground to criminals using ordinary techniques. Indeed, industrial espionage can range from stealing intellectual property to trade secrets to marketing materials -- all of which could be obtained by combing through unprotected documents.

February 13, 2008

The big investment banks may rise from the depths of their despair. But the lifeline that is being extended is under question. Sovereign wealth funds that are set up by national governments are investing billions in those distressed institutions.

Advocates say that it is a function of free commerce, facilitating the flow of capital across national boundaries as well as the technical know-how needed in many burgeoning industries. To impede that would send chills down the spines of investors and thereby deflate the entire global economy.

Skeptics, however, take a more sobering view, noting that sovereign wealth funds originated in the Middle East and are now prominent in China and Russia. Critical questions therefore arise and most notably whether key American businesses want to become obligated to foreign nationals that can't be properly monitored.