CTC INTERNATIONAL GROUP

           CTC INTERNATIONAL GROUP          


CIA LogoCTC International Group, Inc. is staffed primarily by former CIA officers, with a combined total of over 70 years experience in the intelligence community. CTC's objective is to provide discreet, timely and accurate information to business executives. In essence, CTC acts as a private intelligence organization for corporate America.



While CTC can meet almost any collection, investigation or security function required by a business or law firm, it is CTC's experience in international business intelligence which sets it apart. Using a vast network of contacts built up during their Agency years, our staff is able to operate on many different political and business levels in almost any country.

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"Nothing is more expensive than bad information. Know your source!"
"Spying in the United States by foreign governments has become an art,"according to the assistant FBI director of the national security division.  The FBI is currently investigating several cases involving foreign businesses and intelligence services stealing information from US companies.  The cases deal specifically with targeted collection against the US chemical, telecommunications, petrochemical, aircraft and aerospace industries.  


For less than half a million dollars, the Al Qaeda suicide bombers of September 11th inflicted an estimated $700 billion worth of damage to the US economy.

Did you know that 25% of all résumés contain false or exaggerated information, 33% of job applicants falsify employment applications, 5-8% of work references are bogus and 20% of prior employment listings are "stretched" to cover gaps in employment?

According to a report by the US Department of Commerce, foreign companies have used bribes to edge out US competitors on some $36 billion of international business deals in the past year. 

CTC International Group has the credentialed expertise and experience to assist you in protecting your business from the uncertainties that exist in the global environment.

Knowing your source is the most valuable commodity you can have, and we take our work very seriously, so you can have peace of mind whether your business is across the country or around the world.

According to the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive, the motivation for economic espionage is vastly different between the private collector and the government collector.  
For private foreign collectors, the prime motivation for stealing economic secrets is generally profits.
Foreign companies may view the acquisition of trade secrets and proprietary information as the only way to compete against US companies that are moving up 
the technological ladder. Others see industrial espionage as key to gaining access to new markets dominated by more advanced US firms. Foreign individuals involved in the theft of state-of-the-art US technology may do so to bolster their stature in a foreign firm. Individual collectors also may be motivated by revenge. In a number of cases in 2001, individuals stole technology from US firms after they were notified that their employment had been terminated.

Although it is not the case in the US, the intelligence services of a number of our key economic competitors, including Germany, France and Japan, regularly supply business intelligence to corporate leaders in their respective countries to enhance their effectiveness in international markets.  

"Recognizing and heeding cultural differences can be key to international business success" --Great article written by Business America, on how paying attention and adhering to the religious, social and cultural customs of the countries you do business in can pay off in many ways. 


   



Global Finance and Espionage

For foreign government collectors, the driving forces for industrial espionage against the United States can be more complex.  The immediate goal of these efforts to acquire US technology probably is to leapfrog scientific hurdles without undertaking expensive and time-consuming research and development. For the larger and more advanced countries, the longer term objective appears to be to enable their military establishments to move closer to parity with the United States and to give their defense-industrial base and private companies a competitive edge in the global economy. Less developed countries, by contrast, often appear to tap the United States for defense capabilities that respond to known or perceived threats. Increasingly, the search for technology is also motivated by the knowledge that acquiring advanced weapons technology can significantly increase a small nation’s power and influence. Collectors in underdeveloped countries are usually tasked with acquiring only small quantities of export-controlled goods, with the intent that domestic defense industries can cheaply reverse-engineer and mass-produce the products.

Intellegence Facts:

Telephone bugs were discovered in offices used by French, German, and other delegates, in a building in Brussels designated to host a prospective European Union leaders' summit.  

Hurricane Andrew, the most expensive natural disaster in US history, caused $25 billion in damage.  The average annual cost from tornadoes, hurricanes and floods in the US is $11 billion.  The Love Bug virus is estimated to have caused computer users worldwide between $12-15 billion.  The ability of a single university student in the Philippines to produce this level of damage using inexpensive equipment shows the potential risk from cyber crime to the global economy. 

The American Society for Industrial Security (ASIS) estimated that US Fortune 1000 corporations may have lost more than $45 billion in 1999 from theft of their proprietary information and as much as $59 billion in 2001.  ASIS estimated that losses from the theft of intellectual property for all US companies might be as high as $300 billion annually.

A joint survey conducted by the Computer Security Institute and the FBI showed 26 percent of companies reported intellectual property theft in 2001.   





 
In addition to our over 70 years of experience with the CIA, CTC itself has been operating at the same location for over 19 years. Reliability, stability and dedication are the hallmarks of CTC.  
"Competitive Intelligence is a systematic program for gathering and analyzing information about your competitor's activities and general business trends in order to further your own company's goals."

-- Larry Kahaner, Competitive Intelligence


Top Ten Categories of Consumer Fraud Complaints for 2002

Internet Auctions 13%
Internet Services & Computer Complaints 6%
Advance Fee Loans & Credit Protection 5%
Shop-At-Home/Catalog Sales 5%
Foreign Money Offers 4%
Prizes/Sweepstakes & Lotteries 4%
Business Opportunity & Work-At-Home Plans 3%
Telephone Services 2%
Health Care 2%
Magazines & Buyers Clubs 2%
Tips for Safe Traveling Abroad

Learn about the places you plan to visit.  Familiarize yourself with local laws and customs in those areas. 

Leave behind any identifying information (phone numbers, address books, extraneous id's) that is not essential for the trip.  In addition, leave behind photographs of family members/loved ones that could be used as coercion by criminals or terrorists.

Ensure that you have all official documents (passports, shot records, driver's license) up to date. 
Your passport is the most valuable identification you will carry. Passport theft, particularly of American tourist passports, is on the increase.  Take extra precautions to protect your passport because its loss or theft may cause you unnecessary travel complications as well as significant expenses.  For more tips and safety precautions while traveling abroad, please click here. 

 Spies For Hire: CTC International Group
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West Palm Beach, Florida   August 21, 2007   Business News
(PRLEAP.COM) The heat is oppressive in the Southeast Asian jungle. Belligerent Cambodians under orders to locate and kill all traitors have invaded Angkor Wat. The spy, evading capture, hides out in the control tower of an old airport. In a moment of misguided heroism, he steps outside to study the action in the trenches. Suddenly, an enemy bullet slices the air a few inches above his head. In a barrage of gunfire, the spy manages to escape unharmed.

It sounds like a scene from a James Bond movie, but it was an all-too-real experience for former CIA officer and West Palm Beach resident Fred Rustmann. After 24 years of “living in a womb” of clandestine operations that took him from Addis Ababa to Saigon, Rustmann retired from the agency with such high-profile accomplishments as helping deflect an Arab hijack operation and rescuing a fellow spy from captivity - and torture - in Ethiopia.

But what’s a spy to do when he comes in from the cold? The retired lifestyle seemed a tad tame after his heart-in-mouth capers so, recognizing his information gathering expertise was a valuable commodity, Rustmann started CTC International Group, a business-intelligence company based on Clematis Street.

“Corporations that want to compete better overseas need introductions to key people and access to hard-to-get information,” Rustmann says, explaining that getting information from rival firms is no different than getting it from enemy governments. “We obtain that information through the same techniques the CIA uses.” 

That means using a network of ex-CIA and KGB officers around the world, all of whom have access to top decision makers. The spies themselves don’t get their hands dirty. The recruit locals to work undercover, enticing them with such motivators as money, recognition or revenge. “Every problem on earth can be solved with information,” he says. “Our job is to figure out who has that information and target that individual.”

Though it’s tempting to label this work as “industrial espionage,” it isn’t that at all. “The difference is a legal one,” Rustmann says. “Industrial espionage employs techniques that are illegal, like bugging or bribing. We draw the line there. We trick people a lot into giving us the information, but we don’t break any laws. I won’t go to jail for anybody.”

Since CTC’s inception in 1992, Rustmann and his spy-net have provided sophisticated intelligence guidance on environmental issues, international law, risk analysis and internal leak identification.

CTC International Group was founded in 1992 to fill the need for high quality, affordable business intelligence. Its executives are mostly former officers of the Central Intelligence Agency, with unique training, experience, and contacts. All the personnel and associates are hand-picked because of their exceptional qualifications, and they are licensed investigators and members of several international investigative organizations. To ensure the highest quality product possible, it uses the same basic organizational structure as the CIA; it has an operational component that collects information from a wide variety of sources and an analytic component that synthesizes, analyzes, and reports the information to the client. The analysts also identify any existing gaps and task the operation department to collect the information to fill those gaps. They also work closely with the client to ensure that the investigation is answering their specific questions. Additionally, because they use clandestine collection methods, CTC International Group is able to maintain complete confidentiality for the client. It uses the same methodology whether they are undertaking an international or domestic investigation.

CTC takes its name from the CIA’s Counter-Terrorism Center (Rustmann commanded the center’s overseas station prior to his retirement). The company maintains a low profile and runs just like what it is: a miniature CIA with representatives in London, Paris, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Bangkok, Addis Ababa, Cyprus, Mexico and elsewhere. All dealings with CTC are conducted through the firm’s corporate headquarters in Florida.

The “can-do” attitude of the CIA, from which its employees are drawn, is readily apparent. While it can do, and has done, about everything possible in the world of business intelligence, its principal activities fall into five main areas:

• Providing risk analysis for basic corporate decisions.
• Finding international partners for American businesses.
• Conducting targeted intelligence collection to obtain specific information needed by clients.
• Conducting counterintelligence to protect clients from the loss of proprietary information and ensuring the safety of corporate personnel.
• Conducting special operations such as exfiltration of threatened executives, the release of hostages or the return of children kidnapped and taken out of the country by a parent without legal custody.

Each type of assignment requires skills CTC operatives developed at the CIA such as computer research, hostile area operations, contact interviews and information extraction and evaluation. Clients receive periodic progress reports and an end-of-assignment wrap-up written by operatives who are highly educated and experienced in producing intelligence packages for American and foreign leaders.

“Providing risk analysis information is usually the mundane part of our business, although it occasionally gets exciting,” Rustmann said, “but without this type of information a business can’t be effective internationally.” Risk analysis information is a collection of basic information about a country’s economic, political and cultural data - a rundown on local business practices and the interplay between government and business. It also includes advice on criminal and, if applicable, insurgent/terrorist activities and how to deal with them.

“Risk analysis is the foundation that any business must lay prior to getting involved overseas,” Rustmann insists. “It gives a company the information it needs to determine whether or not to expand into a given country and, if so, how to do it effectively.”

Far too many businesses fail to address this area in their planning and pay a price for their neglect. According to Rustmann, a U.S. truck-exporting company expanded operations into a Middle East country without doing its homework. Once it had gotten in too far to gracefully back out, it discovered its major competitor was the brother-in-law of the ruler of the country. No one would buy a truck from any company that the brother-in-law did not control. The result was a costly failure for an American company and several “former” company executives. CTC could have easily alerted the company to the situation prior to investing in its expansion effort.

The term “business intelligence” is used to cover a wide-range of information needs by the business community. The aim of CTC International Group is to provide information to allow a client to solve whatever problem they may have. These needs range from conducting confidential investigations of prospective employees and joint-venture partners to risk assessments, market analysis and company/market viability studies. Competitor intelligence helps companies make important strategic and tactical decisions.

CTC’s extensive web of high level international contacts and knowledge of cultures and business climates allows them to provide clients with important information on how to accomplish business goals in foreign countries and to introduce clients to the important members in government and business circles.
steven chubbuck