Growing Prevalence of Industrial Espionage Threaten Automakers

iMotorTimes - Growing Prevalence of Industrial Espionage Threaten Automakers - iMotor Times

Espionage is still the fastest way to play catch up, from when a US agent stole the secret to machine weaving  from the English to catch up on the fabric market, to the Japanese sending over tourists with near photographic memory to tour our steel mills.

Russia took the Concorde specifications to make their own supersonic transport plane, China went thru Israel to get the Silk Worm missile the US had designed.  Catch up is always involved with espionage, and the more competition heats up, the more value to the target info.

Now it is cars, and fighter jets, but add to that software for specialty manufacturing like one hour optometrists to finished eye wear companies.  The machines are pretty much the same for all the competitors  the products are pretty much the same, so the edge is in the software process of getting from eye exam to finished product.

Just finding out who is going to come out with the next product is a great espionage task.  If store x is going to bet heavy on pink purses this year, store y wants to know, so it can get orders in before they are all gone.  Even who is going to run a series of ad's on some product is great espionage fodder, if you know Z is going to advertise a product or certain strengths of a product, then company W is going to want to cash in on the advertising blitz with their own version of the product.

So all this means the Counter Espionage business is starting to grow again.  CTI started in the mid 80's doing counter espionage work all over the world, hence our full name Counter Technology Inc.  Our Government had me teaching counter espionage agents from selected countries that we knew had been targeted by other not so friendly countries.

Russia was the biggest espionage group out there, but followed quickly by France, Germany, (both of them), Israel, Japan, all had programs that not only helped the Governments, but also select corporations in the country.

Everything is up for grabs, in the late 80's early 90's CTI would work against other teams, who where hired by takeover specialists to get inside information on what companies where ripe for the pickings.  I think we worked almost every major corporate takeover back then.

Two things are making this time different from the others, one is computers are the main thrust of all espionage attacks, and two with the national boarders graying due to globalization often recruiting insiders is all to easy.  Although I must say on the corporate take overs, we almost always found an insider helping the opposition.

Law's are stricter in some cases, and jail time is a real possibility for insiders, which never used to be the case, back in the 80's, but the rewards are huge next to what it used to be.

I do not see Espionage dying down anytime soon, and there is a curious trend developing, more voice and telephone tapping are being done.  It seems we have come full circle, many attackers want to hear what the other is doing instead of just stealing the data.  I am not sure it will continue, everyone still likes the smoking gun effect of a PDF file (in the old days it was a Fax copy) that has the letter head and signature of the guy you are attacking.

I remember having the eves-dropping transmitter in my hands, with quite possibly the attackers fingerprints on it, and not being able to get the Law Enforcement of any level, Federal, State, or Local to prosecute  even to take the evidence.  Now days, just the hint can get some attention, it still has to be big enough to draw the press, but it is a lot easier, ,,, I understand.

Things change but Espionage is still a big factor, someone somewhere wants to know what you know, and will pay someone to get it.