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Industrial Espionage and Digital Forensics
By: James Walsh
Considering the cutthroat competition existing in the world markets, modern businesses and institutions are highly susceptible to industrial espionage. Industrial espionage may simply be defined as the espionage conducted by a business firm or a company over its rival concern, so as to gain a competitive advantage.
Companies often try to steal the trade secrets of their rivals using less lawful and many a time illegal methods such as corporate espionage and spying. Information is the key to success and access to some vital information related to a rival can sometimes decisively tilt the balance in favour of the spying company. The victims of industrial espionage often choose to keep quiet because of the fear of shaking shareholder and customer confidence.
The industries that have mostly been the target of industrial espionage are those that are basically technology-driven and rely on extensive R&D such as computer software/hardware, biotechnology, energy research, defense and armaments, aerospace, space agencies, semiconductors, advanced materials and coating, etc. The sensitive business data that is at risk often includes strategy papers, engineering designs, financial information, bids and mergers, future planning, etc.
According to a survey conducted by American Society for Industrial Security (ASIC) a few years ago, the American industry suffered massive losses amounting to $63 billion from 1993-95, owing to industrial espionage alone. By the year 1997, these losses shot up to $300 billion.
Present Digital Age and Industrial Espionage
In the present digital age when almost all the business and trade activities are computerized, companies are more than ever at the risk of being victims of industrial espionage. Intellectual property and trade secrets are prone to be stolen from a variety of sources. Today it is much easier for the spies to filch the desired information without being noticed. The employees having access to internal servers and systems can easily pilfer the privileged information without being caught. They can download the confidential data on a variety of media such as mobile phones, iPods and USB sticks or can simply mail it as an email attachment, without having to move out of the premises. It has been estimated that nearly 84 percent of network threats come from within the organization.
The internet and information technology do have an important role to play in industrial espionage. Hacking is the most common industrial espionage practice. Often we hear of hackers infiltrating into a company�s computer systems to obtain private information. They try and often succeed in stealing the sensitive information that can be sold to the rival companies for a king�s ransom. Some hackers use this tactics as a form of insider trading to gain knowledge about confidential decisions that can affect the stock prices.
The modern spies can penetrate a company�s information field without leaving any fingerprints. Spyware are commonly used to gain authentic information about a company�s computer users. Such malware allow one to hack into private files and can record keystrokes of a user. Mobile phones and internet have enabled the infiltrators to execute their plans with a high success rate. Trojans are increasingly being used to gain remote access to computers to execute malicious codes.
Digital Forensics and Industrial Espionage
Any industrial espionage activity aided by computer, internet and digital gadgets is an illegal activity and comes within the ambit of cyber crime. It is punishable as per the law. The problem is that courts rely on the existence of incriminating evidence and in case of digital crimes, many a time it becomes next to impossible to establish culpability. Herein comes the role of digital forensics. Digital forensics involves a systematic investigation of digital gadgets and their contents to gather culpable evidence that can be produced in a court of law.
Digital forensics is often used to investigate hacking attacks so as to gather proper evidence to report the crime. Malware like spyware and viruses can successfully be traced back to their creators. Digital forensics can be used to track and trace cyber criminals with a high success rate.
Thus, digital forensics not only helps in bringing the cyber criminals to justice, but is, in fact, a strong deterrent against cyber crime and industrial espionage. The effected companies can use the forensic experts to gather evidence so as to sue the rogue companies for damages.
Article Source: http://www.ezarticles.info
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