The "Thousand Grains of Sand" Approach to Business Espionage

American counter-intelligence efforts are snagging more Chinese spies. This may be more because of increased spying effort by China, than more success by the FBI and CIA...

For over two decades, China has been attempting to do what the Soviet Union never accomplished; steal Western technology, then use it to move ahead of the West...

China gets around this by making it profitable for Western firms to set up factories in China, where Chinese managers and workers can be taught how to make things right. At the same time. China allows thousands of their best students to go to the United States to study. While most of these students will stay in America, where there are better jobs and more opportunities, some will come back to China, and bring American business and technical skills with them. Finally, China energetically uses the "thousand grains of sand" approach to espionage. This involves China trying to get all Chinese going overseas, and those of Chinese ancestry living outside the motherland, to spy for China, if only a tiny bit. (more)

In many societies, this activity is considered normal and patriotic. This highly organized info-harvesting for the sake of the tribe is not the norm in Western society. We have a difficult time fathoming this mentality. Our natural reaction is to treat the threat as unreal. Crime victims often mention this phenomena when describing their experience. 

Accepting the evidence is the first step in defending yourself from an international mugging. Put yourself in the other society's shoes for a moment. Think about it. Their strategy makes sense. Look around. Their strategy works. Accept the evidence. There is no reason for them to change tactics. There is every reason for it to continue and intensify.

They have a working strategy. You need a counter strategy, before your pockets are picked. Call us or the person who hosts Kevin's Security Scrapbook on their web site. Get a counterespionage strategy... while you can still afford one.