SA WEST Joins the Counter Force Group

Dmitry Ivanov, the Head of Intelligence of SA WEST, has recently joined the newly formed Counter Force Group. This is a consortium of corporate counter intelligence experts operating globally and with key offices in Germany, the UK, Russia, Latvia and the USA.

Demand for corporate counter intelligence services has been growing rapidly as more and more companies are finding that secret and sensitive information on their activities and plans is being raided covertly by competitors, head hunters, investigative journalists, investment analysts, activists and consultants of various types. The most threatening of these are competitors looking for information that will improve their competitive strategies. To get it they will typically commission studies from professionals in intelligence collection who make use of techniques that are both legal and, for the most part, ethical. Use of the findings can have a devastating impact on the companies they are targeting in the form of lost sales, ineffective new product launches, losses of key staff and adverse publicity.
The Counter Force Group is offering clients solutions that enable them to minimise losses of information to their competitors and others by plugging the inevitable gaps through which leaks can occur. The Group recognises that there is also a threat to companies from the illegal industrial espionage activities of certain foreign governments and other malign participants in business which resort to computer and telephone hacking, trespass and bribery. Although such threats are comparatively rare, the Group has forged links with cyber, IT and security specialists so that clients can be provided with comprehensive solutions whenever appropriate.

The Counter Force Group comprises Chris West and Jerry Hoffmann of CounterAction, in London and St Louise, Udo Hohlfeld of INFO + DATEN GmbH & Co. KG, in Frankfurt, and Kent Potter of Bennion Group in Salt Lake City.

To find out more about SA WEST approach to counterintelligence matters please see our presentation COUNTERINTELLIGENCE IN CORPORATE SECURITY: The Problem and Method.