Industrial espionage is the stealing of a company’s secret or sensitive business information to allow a person or another company to benefit from it. Industrial espionage includes direct theft of trade secrets, formulas, processes, and designs; sophisticated electronic surveillance (watching); and bribing or blackmailing of employees.
The practice of stealing a business rival’s secrets or spying on a competitor’s activities probably dates from the earliest period of human trade and commerce. But the rapid development of technology in the 1900’s and the dramatic expansion of computer and electronics technology since the mid-1900’s have made industrial espionage a major problem in the modern business world.
The scope of industrial espionage.
Espionage techniques include the bribery or blackmail of employees in key positions. Other techniques include tapping, or using an electronic device to secretly listen to calls on telephone lines, and bugging, or using hidden microphones to overhear conversations taking place in a competitor’s workplace. Hacking (breaking into a company’s computer files) and straightforward theft are additional methods.
Most industrial spies are trained specialists in the many techniques of industrial espionage. Such spies usually hire out their services to the highest bidder. Organized crime groups may also be involved. Often, however, the greatest amount of damage caused by industrial espionage is not done by trained spies. In many instances, companies are harmed by their own careless or angry employees. These employees may talk too freely, sell information for quick profit, or seek a better job by offering their knowledge in the marketplace. Private job recruiters are often paid to seek out people who are thinking of changing their jobs and who have knowledge that would be of interest to a possible employer. It is difficult to protect against employee dissatisfaction. In some areas, spies carry out industrial espionage for foreign governments. A country seeking to modernize its industry and make it more competitive may attempt to steal advanced computer hardware (machines) and software (programs).
Countermeasures to industrial espionage
are many and varied. They include the regular electronic “sweeping” of company buildings to detect miniature microphones and telephone taps. Computers and communications devices are monitored to prevent unauthorized access or use. Computer and other electronic communication messages usually go through a process of encryption before being sent over insecure paths, such as the Internet. Encryption is a procedure that changes a message to disguise it. Only someone with the correct equipment or a key to the code that was used can decrypt (read) the message.
Companies manage access to restricted areas by using special controls to allow entry. For example, only employees who need to enter a secure area are issued an access card opening the door to that area. Another form of code protection could require the employee to press a combination of numbered buttons to unlock a door to a restricted area. The lock combination is known only to authorized personnel.
Companies have also changed their hiring process to include considering life histories and psychological profiles of possible employees. These steps are designed to reveal which employees may be vulnerable to bribery, blackmail, or disloyalty. The monitoring of employees’ activities goes on in many firms, although this practice raises fears of the invasion of employee privacy.
Industrial espionage affects the entire world. It is especially widespread in industrialized countries with advanced technology.
See also Hacking .
