The arrest of a Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited employee for allegedly leaking information to a competing company is one of the few cases of corporate espionage that have come to light.
However, a majority of corporate espionage cases go undetected.
If detected, very few complaints come to light. And in the few cases that complaints are registered, hardly any action is taken.
"Only 20 per cent of corporate espionage cases are detected. Of this, a mere 20 per cent get reported and only 10 per cent can be solved," says Raghu Raman, CEO, Mahindra Special Services Group.
Moreover, there have been very few convictions in India till date for corporate espionage or data theft, while not a single case has been registered under Section 66 of the IT Act 2000.Ajay Jugran, Partner of law firm, Lawcombine, says, "This malady is deep-rooted. It's prevalent when Public Sector Undertakings call for bids. Trading in bidding information is rampant."
"Companies are even using annual maintenance contractors to plant surveillance software in rival firms. The software gives a daily log of the data via e-mail.
Is there a solution? Companies the world over are known to hire Sweep Teams to detect eavesdropping devices. (more)
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