A former engineer for Rockwell and Boeing has been found guilty of spying and passing sensitive information regarding the US Space Shuttle programme and Delta IV rocket to China, in a case that has been hailed as the first successful conviction under the Economic Espionage Act of 1996.

Dongfeng "Greg" Chung, 73, who held a "secret" security clearance during his aerospace engineering career stints at Rockwell International and Boeing, was convicted in a Federal court on July 16 of one count of conspiracy to commit economic espionage, six counts of economic espionage to benefit a foreign country, one count of acting as an agent of the People’s Republic of China, and one count of making false statements to the FBI.

In his three month trial, the court heard that Chung – a native of China who is also a naturalised US citizen – was employed by Rockwell from 1973, until its defense and space unit was acquired by Boeing in 1996.

Investigators said that Chung has received letters from Chinese aviation industry officials as early as 1979, asking him to collect information related to specific US technologies, including the Space Shuttle and other military and civilian aircraft.

In letters presented to the court as evidence, Chung mentions engineering manuals he sent to China, including 24 related to the B-1 Bomber. Between 1985 and 2003, Chung also made multiple trips to China to deliver lectures on technology. During those trips, he met with Chinese government officials to discuss ways to send the requested information back to China, according to investigators.

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New York’s attorney general said he intends to sue of the biggest online social networking sites for allegedly tricking its users of giving up their personal information, and for distributing millions of spam emails.

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said on July 9 that he intends to sue Tagged.com, which touts itself as the third biggest social network in the US in terms of monthly visits, for deceptive email-marketing practice and invasion of privacy.

This comes after a period between April and June in which the company allegedly sent solicitation emails messages to its users’ contacts lists. It did so without asking for consent or notifying its users, he said.

These messages were disguised as if they were coming from a friend, stating that the recipient had been sent photos. In some cases, the message included a picture of the apparent sender. Recipients would be asked to then register on the social networking site before they could view the photos.

"The company would then illegally gain access to their personal email contacts to send more fraudulent invitations. This very virulent form of spam is the online equivalent of breaking into a home, stealing address books and sending phony mail to all of an individual’s personal contacts," Mr Cuomo said in a statement.

Tagged.com said it had discontinued the practice and apologised to its users, and added the problem arose from a new registration process that users were unfamiliar with, causing some to accidentally give consent. It denied it had intentionally accessed its users’ personal contacts to send emails without permission.

“We are truly sorry for any inconvenience or frustration that these people experienced,” said Greg Tseng, the online site’s chief executive. The company also said it took quick action when it realised that consumers did not know they had authorised messages to be sent to the contacts as part of the registration process.

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