Industrial Espionage Investigations
Every company in every business sector is vulnerable to the threat of corporate espionage and theft of proprietary information. We work to protect our clients’ intellectual property. Corporate espionage is on the rise around the world, and individuals, business, and countries are using any ethical or unethical means to acquire data that will give them a competitive or financial advantage over their competition.
Industrial espionage is the hidden and sometimes illegal practice of investigating competitors to gain a business advantage. The target of investigation might be a trade secret such as a proprietary product specification or formula, or information about business plans. In many cases, industrial spies are simply seeking any data that their organization can exploit to its advantage.
An industrial spy may be an insider threat, such as an individual who has gained employment with the company with the purpose of spying or a disgruntled employee who trades information for personal gain or revenge. Spies may also infiltrate through social engineering tactics, for example by tricking an employee into divulging privileged information.
Spies sometimes physically breach the target organization and investigate the premises. In that case, a spy might search waste baskets or copy files or hard drives of unattended computers. Increasingly, the intrusion is through the corporate network. Typically, a targeted attack is conducted to gain initial network access and then an advanced persistent threat (APT) is carried out for continued data theft. The capacity of cell phones to record and transmit can also be exploited by leaving a phone in a boardroom, for example, and monitoring a meeting remotely. Recording devices are also secreted in a variety of items including eyeglasses, pens and USB sticks.
Here are four ways to prevent your valuable data from falling into the wrong hands:
- Identify what information is sensitive and classify it as such, taking the necessary steps to protected it. Information such as R&D processes and innovations or new market strategies are easily identified as “sensitive.” However, other information such as personnel files, pricing structure, and customer lists are often overlooked and left unprotected.
- Conduct a risk assessment to identify vulnerabilities. Assess, too, the probability that someone will exploit those vulnerabilities and obtain sensitive information.
- Establish, review, and update security policies and appropriate safeguards, both procedurally and technologically, to thwart attempts to exploit vulnerabilities and gain access to valuable company data.
- Train all employees. Users, managers and IT staff all need to be trained to identify the business information that needs to be safeguarded, in techniques that can be used to gain access to sensitive data, and what procedures should be taken to report compromises or suspected attempts to solicit sensitive information.
Contact us for for information on how to protect your intellectual property or to investigate a potential espionage attempt.
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