Garrett Wasny, MA, CMC, CITP

According to CNET, Google is investigating whether employees in its China office were involved in the attacks on its network that led to theft of intellectual property.

I discussed this very scenario three years ago in a forum on Google Blogoscoped, a leading Google blog.  I noted:

Google could be the victim of political or corporate espionage or sabotage. It’s not unreasonable to assume that numerous governments around the world (US? UK? Russia? China? Iran? Israel?) and leading multinationals already have spies or moles embedded undercover in Google. Some of the agents may be benign, but some may have agendas either bad or good depending on your perspective. Chinese agents, for example, could scan through Gmail and Google Docs and Spreadsheets to look for dissident activity. American agents could be looking for evidence of terrorist cells and operations.

In a January 18. 2010 Google Blogoscoped forum, I wrote a follow-up posting:

It appears Google has concentrated almost exclusively on containing malicious software and other external threats and perhaps overlooked and underestimated "the enemy within": rogue Google employees engaged in subterfuge right under their noses.

Pardon my histrionics, but this reminds me of that scene from the Quantum of Solace when Mr. White boasts "the first thing you should know about us is... we have people everywhere." Then M's own personal bodyguard pulls a pistol and opens fire in the room.

How many "Mr Whites" and "M bodyguards" now work for or with Google? And not just from China but other countries as well?

Are you a Canadian living in the Unitied States?  If so, check out Tax Issues of Canadians in the US, a new two-hour webinar offered by CPE Link.  Topics include the tax treaty, how to treat Canadian pension and social security income, estate planning for non-residents and non-citizens in general and Canadians in particular. The instructor is Dale A. Walters, CPA, PFS, CFP® (US & Canada), a partner and CEO of Keats, Connelly and Associates, a Phoenix-based, wealth management firm.

Today, Leeanna Hammer from CPE Link emailed me my participant ratings for my Google Productivity Tools for Accountants webinar on January 15, 2010.  On a scale from one to five with five being best, participants rated me as follows:

• Knowledge of subject:  5.0
• Effective presentation skills: 4.8
• Quality/Accuracy of Course Materials: 5.0
• Relevance of Course Materials: 5.0

Thanks to all participants who attended and for your positive feedback.

I took a stroll last night around downtown Vancouver to check out preparations for the upcoming Olympics.  This is the new Welcome Centre Kiosk that's situated in front of the Vancouver Convention Centre East.  I love its design. 

Here's a gallery of some of the speaker badges I've collected over the years at these sessions. A speaker badge is a name tag you receive from a conference organizer when you speak at their event.