Įconomic espionage, unlike political espionage, does not provide the perpetrator with immediate and direct national security advantages, but it is a critical tool for the offending state to gain an indirect national security interest. Usually, such information originates from two sources: human sources, known as Human Intelligence (HUMINT), and electronic sources, known as Signals Intelligence (SIGINT). Nation-States have also shown a predilection for economic espionage, in which they aim to promote their national economy by collecting trade secrets from corporations based in foreign jurisdictions and then passing this proprietary information to the relevant parties. Political espionage aims to improve the offending Nation-State's national security by gaining access to foreign government’s political and military secrets and non-state actors' secrets, such as terrorist organizations' secrets. Nation-States are the most frequent espionage offenders, and they often engage in two categories of espionage, each defined by the sort of information obtained. Thus, it is important to identify the difference between each type of espionage (political espionage and economic espionage) before elaborating on economic espionage as an offense and how to prevent it.Įspionage encompasses the non-consensual collecting of sensitive information under the control of another actor. Cyber espionage undermines the purpose of confidentiality protection by releasing information to unauthorized persons, and it occurs in three stages: reconnaissance, gaining access to sensitive information, and exfiltration. However, besides political and state secrets espionage, adversaries have been targeting industrial espionage, by which state actors and firms attempt to steal trade secrets for economic gain. The attribution of the related cyber-attack would be more complex than a spy on the adversary's territory. While conventional espionage is riskier and less effective than digital spying, it is easier for a nation-state to access sensitive information by breaching the target's cybersecurity. In contrast, cyber espionage aims to get sensitive digital information about an adversary to gain a competitive advantage through cyberspace from anywhere in the world. Traditionally, espionage entails one nation-state sending spies into the territory of another nation-state with the purpose of exfiltrating critical information. What makes an ATP concerning is that threat actors, who are often nation-states, devote far more resources than regular criminals, and the Internet's nature makes it challenging to identify the party behind such an act. CYBER ESPIONAGE.Ĭyber espionage is classified as an Advanced Persistent Threat (ATP). To better understand trade secret theft from a legal perspective and its implications, this article will illustrate a brief overview of economic espionage, the offense under the U.S. Economic Espionage Act, and highlight the role of the organizations' legal and cybersecurity teams in preventing such an offense. Trade secrets are the collective name given to these assets since their worth stems from their confidentiality, and their theft causes an immense financial impact on businesses and the economy. Cybercriminals target businesses within critical sectors, primarily the aerospace and energy sectors, to steal valuable business assets, such as source codes, prototype designs, critical bid information, and customer lists, by hacking computers and evading security measures. Stealing for the profit of another country is considered economic espionage, and only several governments and corporations are taking substantial steps to combat this problem. Most mainstream media continue addressing ransomware activities and raising awareness around related malicious attacks, but it is not popular to find articles addressing cybercrimes from an economic espionage perspective. organizations, respond to, and mitigate cyberattacks, particularly ransomware attacks. cyber defense agency initiated assistance to prepare the U.S. Under its initiative "Shields Up," the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) warned that unprovoked attack by Russia on Ukraine, which has included cyberattacks on the Ukrainian government and critical infrastructure organizations, may have an impact on organizations both within and beyond the region, even though there were no specific or credible threats to the U.S. Since the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, which was launched on February 24, 2022, businesses, mainly Silicon Valley companies, became concerned that they may be targeted.
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