Top arms groups are on high alert to counter cyber spies from stealing their own secrets at a major arms bazaar outside Paris, even as they market new ways to clients on how to repel hackers in the digital battlespace, according to Reurters. France is hosting the world's largest arms fair for land forces near Paris airport Charles de Gaulle, attended by up to 50,000 people who make, buy and use advanced weapons. The exhibition space bristles with weaponry from 130 countries including tanks, armoured vehicles, riot gear and display cases crammed with guns and ammunition. But the crowded arms bazaar is also a snooper's paradise and another proving ground for the cyber war which is already testing the resources of major-league defence companies. "It is very easy to go crawling over everybody's systems here. Some people come and their approach is to grab everything they can," said a senior Western defence company official. "There are two approaches -- they either try to take the whole haystack and look for a needle, or there are those who know exactly what needle they are looking for." Scouting out the competition is as old as trade fairs themselves, but the biennial Eurosatory arms gala brings together sensitive targets from the United States, Europe, Russia and -- for the first time this year -- China. The United States has long suspected the Chinese and Russians of using cyber attacks to try to steal sensitive information, but both countries have denied this. Risks at the Eurosatory arms show range from petty theft to covert photography and electronic eavesdropping. Behind the suits and dark glasses there is an atmosphere of mutual distrust. "Everyone is told to keep their eyes and ears open, watch that equipment doesn't disappear. If people take photographs, we need to know who they are," said a French defence executive. Exhibitors are careful not to bring classified material into a show. But portable computer networks contain commercially sensitive information and may betray a useful signature that could later provide a side door into more sensitive systems.
