https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wired.com/2007/04/walmart-hires-f/amp
SHARON WEINBERGER04 04.25.07
From 2007
Wal-Mart Hires for In-House Spy Shop (Updated)
Wal-Mart is looking for a few good men (and possibly women) to work for the company’s global security office, the AP reports: Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has been recruiting former military and government intelligence officers for a branch of its global security office aimed at identifying threats to the world’s largest retailer, including from "suspect individuals […]
Wal-Mart is looking for a few good men (and possibly women) to work for the company's global security office, the AP reports:
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has been recruiting former military and government intelligence officers for a branch of its global security office aimed at identifying threats to the world's largest retailer, including from "suspect individuals and groups".
Wal-Mart's interest in intelligence operatives comes at a time when the retailer is defending itself against allegations by a fired security employee that it ran surveillance operations against targets including critics, dissident shareholders, employees and suppliers.
Wal-Mart has denied any wrongdoing.
Wal-Mart posted ads in March on its own web site and sites for security professionals, including the bulletin of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers, for "global threat analysts" with a background in government or military intelligence work.
The jobs were listed with the Analytical Research Center, part of Wal-Mart's Global Security division, which is headed by former senior CIA and FBI senior officer Kenneth Senser. The analytical unit was created over the past year and half, according to published comments by its head, Army Special Operations veteran David Harrison.
The job description includes collecting information from "professional contacts" and public data to anticipate and assess threats stemming from "world events, regional/national security climates, and suspect individuals and groups."
"Familiarity with a broad spectrum of information resources and data-mining techniques" is listed among the skills sought, along with a foreign language, preferably Chinese or Spanish.
A Wal-Mart spokesman declined to comment on the Analytical Research Center for this story or to make any security executives available for interviews. Lots of companies have sophisticated security departments, and frankly it makes a lot of sense to hire former government experts in this area. But the idea of a company running private intelligence operations, as Steve Aftergood points outs in the article, is somewhat unique.
Update: Nicholas Weaver remind us that Disney has asimilar interest in intelligence analysts.