I Spy

Just as with national security intelligence, corporate espionage work consists mostly of sifting through mountains of boring data and financials in a search for patterns. Most intelligence 'agents' (whether DoD or IBM) are nothing more than bureaucrats working nine-to-five in cube farms. But there are field operatives as well -- real life corporate spies and even freelance agents selling their services to the highest bidder. The author of this article is one of them, and he gives us an inside view of how it works. It's all pretty tame, but the job still requires a specific type of personality to pull it off. You must have a certain gift for socializing and steering conversation if you're going to be a large black man shopping for women's blouses and make it appear perfectly above-board.