{"id":5859,"date":"2021-06-22T02:49:58","date_gmt":"2021-06-22T02:49:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blackopspartners.com\/?p=5859"},"modified":"2021-08-23T02:48:35","modified_gmt":"2021-08-23T02:48:35","slug":"economic-espionage-and-the-growing-case-for-corporate-counterintelligence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blackopspartners.com\/economic-espionage-and-the-growing-case-for-corporate-counterintelligence\/","title":{"rendered":"Economic Espionage and the Growing Case for Corporate Counterintelligence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Originally posted at Security Infowatch<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n In the 2016 movie, \u201cSnowden\u201d former National Security Agency intelligence contractor Edward Snowden uncovers massive amounts of illegally obtained data assembled to track digital communications from foreign governments, terrorist groups and ordinary Americans. For many, the biographical political thriller was a wakeup call. For those in risk management and information security, it reaffirmed what we probably already knew or suspected \u2014 that many different entities around the globe know quite a bit about where we work and live and our daily habits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For corporate businesses, information protection is critical and the risks and threats keep changing. Now, the theft of information and intelligence is increasingly gathered on U.S. companies from foreign entities that use the results for a variety of different types of what is now called economic espionage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a nationwide campaign launched by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) aimed at educating business and industry leaders about the growing threat \u2014 and mounting losses \u2014 of economic espionage, Andy Ubel, the chief intellectual property counsel of Valspar Corp. stated: \u201cMy company had firsthand experience dealing with an economic espionage case.\u201d Ubel was included in the campaign and corresponding video, The Company Man<\/a>: Protecting America\u2019s Secrets. The video, created by the FBI in collaboration with the National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC), is based on an actual case involving the attempted theft of trade secrets from the U.S. company by a foreign competitor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the Chicago Division of the FBI, a former chemist for Valspar\u2019s architectural coatings group pleaded guilty in 2010 to theft of trade secrets, admitting he stole formulas and other proprietary information valued up to $20 million as he prepared to go to work for an overseas competitor. He confessed using his access to Valspar\u2019s secure internal computer network to enter databases containing trade secrets and to download approximately 160 original batch tickets, or secret formulas, for paints and coatings, stated an FBI\u00a0press release<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There have also been cases of trade secret theft which included dumpster diving for intellectual property such as discarded prototypes. In one case, the FBI said Chinese nationals were caught digging in cornfields in Iowa in search of seeds developed by a U.S. company for pest and drought resistance. While the theft of corn seeds seems inconsequential on its surface, the company that developed them spent tens of millions of dollars on technology and research to come up with its formula.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Economic espionage and its players circumvent normal costly research and development by copying methods of production or other processes. In one example given by the FBI, spies targeted the manufacturers of sprinkler heads hoping to gain an edge in their market by stealing specific production data that led to greater economies of scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2015 the FBI\u2019s Counterintelligence Division said in a news report that there was a sharp spike in the number of espionage investigations by the agency, citing a 53 percent increase in caseloads and with state-sanctioned corporate theft by China at the core of the problem. It added that spies of Chinese origin were using dramatic tactics to steal critical information from U.S. companies. At the time, Beijing was cited as the most predominant threat facing the U.S.; an FBI survey of 165 U.S. companies found China was the perpetrator in 95 percent of economic-espionage cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although the exact dollar figure on the costs and losses to U.S. businesses from economic espionage is difficult to document, the amounts are substantial. In a 2013 report by the Blair Huntsman IP Commission, The Report of the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property, <\/a>it estimated the total losses in the \u201chundreds of billions\u201d each year. Those numbers did not take into consideration companies who either do not detect, do not report or under-report losses tied to economic espionage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those responsible for the theft are usually foreign competitors or governments looking for trade secrets, production methods, innovations and even insights into labor or trade disputes.<\/p>\n\n\n\nTrade Secret Theft and Competitive Resource Compromise<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Global Threats to U.S. Businesses Heighten<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n