CDR: Qualcomm CEO loses laptop

[A. Melon]

"contained proprietary
information that could be valuable to foreign governments."

Kinda interesting statement about a
telecoms machine.  Foreign
govts?




PC with Corporate Secrets
           Disappears
           Qualcomm Chiefs Laptop Taken from Podium 

           Sept. 18, 2000 

                       IRVINE, Calif. (AP) -- The personal portable
                       computer of Qualcomm Inc.s chief executive
                       officer, which apparently contained valuable
                       company secrets, disappeared from a hotel
                       conference room moments after he addressed a
                       national business journalists meeting. 

                       Irwin Jacobs left the computer unattended on a
                       podium or an adjoining table in the Hyatt
                       Regency-Irvine ballroom on Saturday for 15-20
                       minutes when he stepped down to talk to a small
                       group after addressing about 90 members of the
                       Society of American Business Editors and
                       Writers. 

           Proprietary information 

           Jacobs told people at the conference that the IBM laptop, which he
           had used for a slide show-type presentation focusing on Qualcomms
           wireless telecommunications technology, contained proprietary
           information that could be valuable to foreign governments. 

           Qualcomm is a leader in wireless technology -- a boom market of the
           burgeoning telecommunications revolution -- with $3.9 billion in
           revenues last year. It designs and produces chips for wireless
           communications devices and holds hundreds of patents whose
           royalties provide it with the bulk of its earnings. 

           SABEWs president Byron Calame, deputy managing editor of The
           Wall Street Journal, expressed sorrow at the event and noted that
           people with access to the area "included registrants, exhibitors and
           guests at our conference, hotel staff and perhaps others." 

           Very disturbing 

           "Its very disturbing to him," company spokeswoman Christine
           Trimble said of the 66-year-old Jacobs, Qualcomms chairman and
           founder. Jacobs, whose company is based in nearby San Diego, had
           driven to the conference with his wife and without any security. 

           Trimble would not discuss details of the apparent theft except to
           confirm that the laptop was used by Jacobs for "business purposes."
           Company officials would not say whether Jacobs had contacted the
           FBI. 

           "The FBI was never called that were aware of," said Irvine police
           desk officer Sgt. Tim Smith. "We took it as a straight laptop theft,
           which is pretty typical for a hotel." 

           However, several attendees at the SABEW conference said they
           noticed three unattended laptops shortly after the theft as they
           passed through an adjoining exhibitors room. 

           "It doesnt seem (Jacobs laptop) would be the obvious choice if the
           individual was looking for an easy target," noted Shawn Abbott, chief
           technical officer of computer security company Rainbow
           Technologies. 

           Just 30 feet away 

           Jacobs and about a half-dozen journalists were no further than 30
           feet from his laptop when it disappeared. More than 100 reporters
           and editors from across the nation attended SABEWs 4th annual
           technology conference, a two-day event that ended Sunday. 

           Trimble said the laptop, valued at about $4,000, was password
           protected and the data was backed up on a computer at Qualcomms
           San Diego headquarters. However, password-protected computers
           running Windows operating systems, as Jacobs was, can be easily
           be broken into. 

           The level of security on Jacobs laptop could not be determined. 

           Qualcomm is the worlds leading developer of a technology known as
           CDMA, which seems to have won the global battle to become the
           standard technology for making high-speed Internet access available
           on wireless devices. 

           Wireless technologies 

           Those so-called third-generation wireless technologies are expected
           to connect the Internet to handhelds and other devices in the next
           few years -- initially in the Far East and Europe. Those markets are
           considered to have a potential value in the tens of billions of dollars,
           as everything from cars to airplanes are equipped with broadband
           wireless connections. 

           If security on Jacobs laptop was limited only to password protection
           _ rather than a more advanced encryption scheme -- "its extremely
           unlikely that it will take any more than removing the hard drive and
           hooking it up to another computer to read all the files," Abbott said. 
http://www.apbnews.com/newscenter/breakingnews/2000/09/18/qualcomm0918_01.html