Tuesday, June 15, 2021

Concerns Increase As Business Espionage Escallates

Business espionage has become more common in recent times due to the growth of outsourcing. Outsourcing work reduces the amount of direct contact between workers and employers, yet increases the potential for conflict and theft. An increase in business Espionage is therefore of major concern...

Companies must take steps to protect their intellectual property from employees who may be tempted to use this information to gain an unfair advantage ... The longer Espionage goes on the more the company will pay for it in terms of lost revenue. more

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Companies—large and small—need to be aware of espionage threats. If that seems a bit overboard, consider the dramatic increase in the number of incidents related to geopolitical cybercrime. 

"Many authoritarian governments are doing everything they can, including using their spy services, to build successful businesses and grow their economies," explained Bill Priestap and Holden Triplett, co-founders of Trenchcoat Advisors, and adjunct professors at Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service, in their Lawfare Institute article: The Espionage Threat to U.S. Businesses. "These nation-states are consciously building national champions to dominate industries to extend their national power—not just domestically but also worldwide." 

Priestap and Triplett advise the weapon of choice is espionage, since an average business owner would never suspect that kind of interest. "Intelligence and the art of spying are no longer constrained to the government sphere," mention Priestap and Triplett. "The assets that competitor states are now seeking to obtain from the United States are not possessed by the government—they are possessed by companies." more