Addressing Corporate Espionage in the 21st Century

The 21st Century is often referred to as the information age; the developing global marketplace has contributed to the entrance of new cultures and economies into the competitive global economy. Due to globally available infrastructure and the development of global telecommunication/computing capabilities, it has enabled individuals, companies and countries to compete globally on a level playing field with traditional Western powers even from some of the most remote parts of the world. Unfortunately this has also created conditions in which the threat of corporate espionage has been rapidly proliferating due to the ease threat actors can ply their trade both through physical and virtual actions against U.S. corporations.

It is becoming routine to hear about corporate/state-sponsored espionage cases in the media. Annual losses to corporate espionage are estimated to be at $300 billion annually, which would be comparable to all of the United States exports to Asia annually. Think about that for a moment – $300 billion annually…The terrorist attacks on 9/11 were estimated at a total of $62 billion in physical asset and insurance loss which pales in comparison to the annual espionage loss in the U.S.