This past year, the FBI has observed a stark increase (53%!) in the amount of corporate espionage cases within the United States... the FBI has pointed out that a major concern in corporate espionage today are “
insider threats” – essentially,
employees who are knowledgeable of confidential matters are being recruited by competitor companies, and foreign governments in exchange for large amounts of money at much higher rates than ever before.
Walter Liew vs. DuPont – “titanium dioxide”
In July 2014, Walter Liew, a chemical engineer from California, pleaded guilty to selling DuPont’s super secret pigment formula that makes cars, paper, and a long list of other everyday items whiter to China.
Starwood vs. Hilton
In 2009, Starwood Hotels accused Hilton Hotels of recruiting executives out from under them and stealing confidential materials... Starwood alleged that the ex-employees had stolen more than 10,000 documents and delivered them to Hilton –
the worst part being that Starwood didn’t even notice that the documents were missing until after the indictment.
Microsoft vs. Oracle
In June 1999, Oracle hired a detective agency called Investigative Group International (IGI) to spy on Microsoft – it was headed by a former Watergate investigator, if that says anything... IGI, following Oracle’s orders, sifted through Microsoft’s trash (a practice also known as Dumpster Diving)...
The following May, the same happened. This time, IGI focused its investigations on the Association for Competitive Technology, a trade group; IGI arranged for a random woman to bribe ACT’s cleaning crew with $1,200 in exchange for bringing any office trash to an office nearby – of course, the office was a front for IGI.
Steven Louis Davis vs. Gillette
In 1997, Steven Louis Davis, an engineer helping Gillette develop its new shaving system, was caught faxing and emailing technical drawings to four of Gillette’s competitors...
Sadly, these economic espionage cases aren’t shocking to most corporate executives;
it’s not uncommon for rivalry companies to dumpster dive, hack, bribe, and hire away key employees. In a rush to push out new products, major corporations will do just about anything to defame their competitors. And, although a few of these cases stem from the 1990s, their spirit still holds today –
as the FBI has noted that corporate espionage is no where near slowing down.
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...toward the end of the offending period, the victim noticed some of the text messages contained information that only she and a few people close to her knew including the sale of a horse and other private matters, Sergeant Hutton said...
In 2015, the British insurance company Lloyd’s estimated that cyber attacks cost businesses as much as $400 billion a year, which includes direct damage plus post-attack disruption to the normal course of business. Some vendor and media forecasts over the past year put the cybercrime figure as high as $500 billion and more...
If spying is the world's second oldest profession, the government of China has given it a new, modern-day twist, enlisting an army of spies not to steal military secrets but the trade secrets and intellectual property of American companies. It's being called "the great brain robbery of America."
and “NCIS” fame — confidently embarks on a second career in his highly entertaining debut that mixes the espionage novel with the mystery thriller, Once a Crooked Man.
We’ve had an Amazon Echo at my house for a while now, since I couldn’t help myself but get on the early adopters list long ago. Truth be told, I love it. Alexa tells me the weather, keeps the twins’ Raffi albums close at hand, and reminds me to buy milk. But since my daughter has discovered her inner spider monkey, she likes to climb up on the cabinet where Alexa lives and likes to talk to her… and pull on the power cable. Also, she once turned the volume up all the way so that when I asked Alexa the weather at 6:30 a.m. I woke up the entire house…whoops. So long story short, Alexa has been unplugged, and I thought … why not take it to the office?
The ninth of 13 children, Samuel Slater was born in Belper, England in 1768. At age 14, he entered a seven-year apprenticeship agreement with mill owner Jedediah Strutt. He proved a clever, talented young man and quickly became Strutt’s “right hand.” During Slater’s apprenticeship, he learned a great deal about cotton manufacturing and management. He had the opportunity to work on the machines, and saw how Richard Arkwright’s spinning frame—the first water-powered textile machine—was used in large mills. Unfortunately for the ambitious Slater, Strutt had several sons of his own. As a result, Slater would not have a path to advance in the business. 
Europe’s top human rights court ordered the handover of transcripts of private conversations by a Romanian worker on Yahoo Messenger. In this case, the employer had warned staff in its company policy that their devices were only to be used for work.