The $py who loved me.

• Author: Eldar, Michael
• Position: Commercial & criminal espionage - Dollars & Sense

PERHAPS NOT THE OLDEST profession in the world, but spying surely has been around for a long time. Even the Bible mentions several spying missions, and the practice has been common in history all around the globe. The Persians managed to get around the Greeks' defenses in Thermopylae with the help of a Greek spy. Silk worms were stolen from China by monks who hid them in their hollow canes and thus the Byzantine Empire could build a lucrative silk industry. Nuclear bomb secrets, stolen by KGB (today FSB) spies, enabled the Soviet Union to produce the atomic bomb years earlier than it would have done by itself.

These are just a few of the notable, often glamorized spying exploits, which are the subjects of legends, books, and movies. While spying always was considered as improper, although often an exciting occupation, it also is viewed as essential for national security, and many in industry, commerce, and crime. Modem technology greatly has expanded the tools for espionage. Miniature cameras, the telephone, wireless devices, and computers have given spies capabilities never dreamed of before--and then came the Internet. While becoming essential to our way of life, the Internet also brought spying to new heights.

We tend to think that spying mostly is done by national spy organizations like the National Security Agency, FSB, Chinese spying services, and others. The fact is that all of the spy agencies in the world pale in comparison to the everyday spying conducted by perfectly legal organizations. Every move we make on the Internet, article we read, site we look at, and purchase we make is recorded, stored, analyzed, and used or sold to be utilized for multiple purposes, commercial and political. While many people are aware of this spying, it usually is discounted as the price we have to pay for progress.

What usually concerns us is the criminal spying intent on stealing our personal information. Our Social Security, credit card, and bank account numbers, as well as other private and confidential information, can be...