What comes to mind when you think of industrial espionage — or economic or corporate espionage? Is it something like foreign spies sneaking into a defense contractor facility to steal fighter jet technology?
Of course, that does happen. State-sponsored spying is responsible for the theft of billions of dollars of intellectual property annually, according to estimates. But many cyberattacks on industrial organizations don’t fit that mold.
Top 10 Corporate Espionage Fallacies
Here are the top 10 myths and misconceptions about the state of industrial espionage in 2019.
1. Industrial Espionage Is a New Phenomenon
Information being stolen for financial gain has been a reality for centuries, but it really picked up steam with the industrial revolution. Britain industrialized first, and everybody else wanted to steal their secrets. As a result, Britain banned both the export of industrial machinery and the emigration of skilled workers.
The American founding fathers were big fans of stealing Britain’s secrets. Alexander Hamilton and Benjamin Franklin called for Americans to steal British technology and for skilled workers to emigrate to America. One famous immigrant, Samuel Slater, built America’s first water-powered textile mill using stolen British technology — the English press even called him “Slater the Traitor.”
This trend of theft naturally continued through the 20th century. In the 1920s, visitors from the Soviet Union stole blueprints and parts for a tractor during a visit to a Ford factory in the U.S. In the 1990s, the Gillette razor company caught an employee from a partner company stealing designs. Because the thief sent the trade secrets via fax and email, he was also charged with wire fraud.
In short, myths misconceptions about industrial espionage
