

Victimized companies don’t wish to report them, if indeed they ever become aware of them. Challenges of DetectionĬyber espionage maintains a lower profile than critical infrastructure attacks, ransomware, mega-consumer data hacks, and identity theft and fraud, and other threats in part because there’s no incentive to report cyber espionage incidents. The CSIS report identified three key cyber espionage challenges facing organizations and nations today.
#Child espionage definition series
Such theft could smother a nation’s most promising new startups in their Series A cradles, or drive its most innovative mid-sized companies out of business, erasing wealth and jobs in the process. The cyber theft of such IP could result in lost market share and revenues for corporations. Furthermore, it’s wise to assume that the beneficiaries of commercial cyber espionage are capable of copying your compromised product designs and building them into their own products, just as Chinese government engineers had integrated stolen F-35 design features into China’s J-20 stealth fighter. If enough of a profit motive is there, it’s wise to assume that the hacking expertise and tools to steal IP are within your would-be attackers’ reach. Organizations beyond military contractors should assume they could become targets of such cybercrimes.

Put simply, cyber espionage isn’t just the U.S.

Such examples suggest that nation states are seeking to steal IP not only to enhance their military strength, but also to achieve technological leadership throughout the rest of their economies without the investments, human talent, or other foundational elements associated with technical innovation. There is also the example from the 2004 Nortel Networks cyber-attacks that allegedly compromised IP later used to strengthen the market position of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei. military.īut there are also cases such as 2009 Operation Aurora attacks, in which nation-state hackers allegedly tied to the China’s People’s Liberation Army sought to steal IP and business confidential information from IT, chemical, web services, and manufacturing firms as well as military contractors. corporations attempting to steal drone technologies used by the U.S. Last month, the Associated Press reported a similar event where Russian hackers attacked several U.S. When we think of cyber espionage, we tend to think of events such as the Chinese military’s theft of the F-35 joint strike fighter’s blueprints from U.S. Furthermore, the report argues that “Internet connectivity has opened a vast terrain for cybercrime, and IP theft goes well beyond traditional areas of interest to governments, such as military technologies.” The report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and McAfee estimates that the cost of cybercrime to the global economy is around $600 billion annually, or 0.8% of global GDP, and cyber espionage accounts for 25% of that damage, more than any other category of cybercrime. One of the most notable aspects of “The Economic Impact of Cybercrime” report released recently is the prominence of cyber espionage, the cyber-theft of intellectual property (IP) and business confidential information.

In a technology-driven age, entrepreneurs, organizations, and nations succeed or fail in large part based on how effectively they develop, implement, and protect technology.
