Commercial Espionage Awareness And Counter-Measures
Commercial Espionage Awareness and Counter-Measures
Each year commercial espionage strikes thousands of US businesses. In terms of financial loss, the damage, though impossible to precisely determine, is estimated by some experts to be between 500 billion to 750 billion dollars USD per annum. The type of information sought is not only confined to copyrights, trademarks or patents; It encompasses a wide range of intellectual property, including, but not limited to:
- Research and development
- Sophisticated technology
- Proprietary information, trade secrets
- Formulas, inventions, manufacturing processes
- Software
- Products
- Cost structure
- Financial data
- Customer lists
- Marketing strategies
Imagine your firm has spent a decade and hundreds of millions of dollars developing a new drug or other extraordinary innovation. Now imagine that the results of those efforts were stolen because of a data breach or simple lapse in security. The damage to your company might well be catastrophic. Other breaches may be far less dramatic but cause damage nonetheless. Collectors seek anything which may offer a competitive advantage and many times the most serious damage is caused by the acquisition of information thought by the victim to be inconsequential.
Who is gathering this information? The collectors are competitors, criminals and foreign intelligence agencies. They are professionals and amateurs and even trusted employees. Their methods are varied and they operate using both aggressive and non-aggressive measures. Often their efforts are not detected until long after the damage has been done.
While Commercial Espionage cannot always be prevented, its scope and effect can be limited through education and basic adherence to security protocols. Global Security Group, Inc. (GSG) offers a number of services that will help reduce the risk of your firm becoming one of the myriad harmed by having their intellectual property compromised. These services include both training and review and assessment of your current counter espionage measures and the training program will cover:
- Identifying IP and targeted information
- Gauging the cost of IP loss
- Evaluation & Classification
- Identifying the Collectors
- Identifying their Methods of Collection
- Behavior Modification
- Protecting IP while Traveling
- Secure Communications
- Securing the Network
- Compromising Personnel
This course is not simply theoretical. Upon completion, participants will be equipped to make immediate changes and take concrete steps to protect their company and personnel from espionage. Participants will receive a comprehensive course handout in electronic format.
