Business Espionage, financial Espionage, industrial espionage or corporate spying is a sort of hybrid espionage conducted mostly for commercial reasons rather than purely national security purposes. This is a much more common form of spying than the earlier case of state-sponsored spying on behalf of the government. Corporate or commercial espionage has many names such as commercial fraud, tradecraft sabotage, secrets spilling and many more.
The threats from business espionage are increasing day by day due to the increasing competition and globalization. Corporate espionage includes many activities like stealing company or industry related information, hacking, jamming or interfering with email systems etc. to gain competitive advantage and create instability in the target organization. These external threats to the business to increase the level of concern of the managers and executives about the sabotage of their company’s strategic plans and operations.
Business espionage has become one of the major reasons behind the failure of organizations in many fields. The companies are not properly protecting their secrets from competitors and other spies. Many cases of commercial espionage have been reported lately. These cases may range from simple theft of trade secrets to hacking and sabotage of computer networks. Commercial Espionage is a worldwide phenomenon. It has been blamed for many cases of decline in the productivity level of companies, degradation of the market share of global brands, and many more.
In most of the cases, it has been seen that business espionage as a result of several spies create several threats for the organizations. The threat can be in the form of accidental leakage of confidential data. This kind of leak can cause several catastrophic effects. The data leakage through these spies can be used against the competitors or other rivals of the organization. This can result in severe damage or even collapse of the organization.
A wide range of businesses and organizations including government agencies are facing the problem of Business Espionage and its threats. It has become a serious threat to the economic stability of countries. The main aim of these spy agencies is to steal confidential information and exploit this sensitive data for their own benefits. These agencies use a number of illegal means and tools to carry out their nefarious activities. The most commonly used tools and techniques include bugging, malware, monitoring, writing code, tapping, secret messaging, and gathering intelligence.
In the next part of this series, we will be discussing the Business Espionage threats and how to protect your business and its confidential data. In the first place, you must identify all the threats and vulnerabilities identified by your company. Next, you must make sure that you implement the best security measures. Finally, you must train all your employees so that they are well-aware of the risks and vulnerabilities identified by them. Once all the threats and vulnerabilities identified by your company are addressed, you can slowly regain the confidence that you need to survive the competition.
