Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison has long been a bitter critic of Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Microsoft's competitive tactics. Oracle, the world's second biggest software maker, acknowledged it had hired a detective firm to investigate groups sympathetic to Microsoft, the industry leader. An ACT spokeswoman, Allison May Rosen, said on Wednesday that her organization was mulling legal action against both the detective firm and Oracle for alleged dirty tricks. Oracle said it had been seeking to uncover links between Microsoft and the groups during Microsoft's landmark antitrust battle with the government. It said it had ordered IGI to stick to the law.
Sex is an old standby, according to investigators.
Just this week, the General Accounting Office, the audit arm of Congress, highlighted the use of the tactic to win over U.S. nuclear scientists, even in countries deemed non-threatening to the United States. This included a prostitute, a waitress and two female employees at the facility where he was visiting. David Keyes, who oversaw about 700 FBI computer crime investigations in 1997 and 1998, said the greatest threat to corporate secrets was the disgruntled insider. 810, the high-tech dream machine. ZD Inc. ZDNet Logo is a service mark of ZD Inc.