The Espionage Threat to U.S. Businesses

By Bill Priestap, Holden Triplett

Many authoritarian governments are doing everything they can, including using their spy services, to build successful businesses and grow their economies. Indeed, even some nonauthoritarian governments are taking this approach. The reason for this is simple: A large number of nation-states view privately owned companies within their jurisdictions as extensions of their governments. They support and protect the companies as if those entities were integrated parts of government...

(Main Points)

U.S. companies must understand that in many cases they are no longer simply competing with corporate rivals. They are competing with the nation-states supporting their corporate rivals—nation-states with enormous resources and capabilities and with very little restraint on what they will do to succeed.
U.S. businesses are decidedly not supported by U.S. government spy agencies. For this reason, they are often competing on an uneven playing field.
Exacerbating the problem is the fact that businesses and investors are woefully unprepared for this new environment.
Intelligence and the art of spying are no longer constrained to the government sphere. While spy tools and tactics are more readily available, what is truly driving this proliferation is the intelligence realm’s shift in focus from government to businesses.
In addition, most companies are focused too myopically on strong cybersecurity as a panacea for spying. Of course, cybersecurity is extremely important, but it protects only one vector by which a nation-state could spy on and subsequently loot a company.
If businesses want to protect their assets, then developing an understanding of spies and their activities should become standard practice for business leaders and investors today.
Spy services may also target a business via its partners and vendors, so it is equally important to shield those entities from potential attack or attempted exploitation.
Understanding and mitigating the activities of spies must become standard practice for business leaders. And if investors don’t see companies doing this, they should hold onto their money—tightly. more