CNN has the story:

Two former Coca-Cola employees were sentenced Wednesday to serve federal prison terms for conspiring to steal and sell trade secrets to rival Pepsi.

Joya Williams, 42, of Norcross, Ga., received an eight-year prison term, while Ibrahim Dimson, 31, got a five-year term, according to a news release from the U.S. attorney's office for the Northern District of Georgia.

Both were ordered to pay $40,000 in restitution.

Williams was convicted in February on charges that stem from a plot to offer samples of a new Coca-Cola product to Pepsi for $1.5 million.

Dimson, who is from New York, pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in October.

Edmund Duhaney, 43, of the Atlanta suburb of Decatur, will be sentenced at a later date, said the news release.

The trio was arrested last July after a federal sting operation was launched when Pepsi tipped off Coke that it was being offered inside information.

All three are charged with wire fraud and unlawfully stealing and selling trade secrets from Coca-Cola Co.

"As the market becomes more global, the need to protect intellectual property becomes even more vital to protecting American companies and our economic growth," U.S. Attorney David E. Nahmias said of the case. "This case is an example of good corporate citizenship leading to a successful prosecution, and that unlawfully gaining a competitive advantage by stealing another's trade secrets can lead straight to federal prison."(read more)

There have been a few high-profile breaches of information security publicized in recent weeks that draw our gaze inevitably toward how to prevent and mitigate such unfortunate situations in the future.

The DuPont espionage case of international betrayal against former chemist Gary (Younggang) Min is the first to consider since it was potentially the most costly to his employer and involved that most serious of economic competitors: China. The local Delaware News Journal has the most up-to-date summation of the China tie-in from last week:

China has been called the United States' primary adversary in economic espionage.

Of the three cases of foreign economic espionage brought since a 1996 law was created, two have directly implicated China.

A half-dozen more involving the less serious crime of theft of trade secrets have had a Chinese connection, but no proof that information was funneled to the Chinese government.

The recent case against Gary Younggang Min, whose guilty plea to stealing $400 million in trade secrets from the DuPont Co. was unsealed last month, certainly hints that it could be part of that trend.

In civil litigation filed by DuPont against Min in Ohio -- separate from the criminal action in Delaware unsealed last month -- DuPont officials charge the information Min stole about some of DuPont's most well-known products, including Kevlar, Teflon and Nomex, was almost certainly bound for Chinese companies or the government.(read more)

Since first posting a couple of weeks ago about the HP scandal after CEO Mark Hurd finally gave some voice to concerns about his involvement, I was astonished by the deluge of private emails I received about the subject and implications for the CI field. What was even more astonishing was the utter lack of commentary here, as comments to the original post. With that, I urge readers to weigh in with their opinions and let their voice be heard, particularly after 60 Minutes' piece last night.

CBS's 60 Minutes (video still available) Sunday night featured the dragon lady duo of Silicon Valley appearing in separate interviews going on the offensive in the wake of indictments by California Attorney General Bill Lockyer of former Hewlett-Packard chairman of the board, Patricia Dunn.(read more)