“A day after a recent report surfaced that an Apple employee had lost a prototype for a new but unreleased iPhone at a Northern California watering hole, two job listings appeared on Apple’s website for managers of ‘new product security’,” AFP reported. “Such workers would join a team at the $350 billion company that has included ex-FBI agents and other highly trained pros with backgrounds in intelligence and law enforcement.”

In late August, a prototype of the iPhone 5 went missing in a northern California bar due to the negligence of an employee entrusted with the device. It was the second such incident in so many years. The company wouldn’t say whether the new positions that opened had anything to do with their prototypes that keep go missing.

“Corporate espionage, that’s big money. Billion-dollar money. The paranoia is justified,” said Jim Stickley, co-founder of corporate security consulting firm TraceSecurity. “Whatever they’re trying to do, their competitors want to know. Everybody wants to know.”

Apple has also beefed up security in Asia, where a new security unit has been established in Hong Kong to chase down counterfeiters of Apple’s products. The team was reportedly bought from Pfizer, where their job was tracing manufacturers and sellers of fake Viagra. Entire fake Apple stores have begun springing up all over China of late. DM

Read more:

• Lost iPhone just one problem for Apple security in USA Today.

Photo: REUTERS