• Economic espionage, a problem in today's business environment, causes billions of euros in losses globally every year

• In the US alone, aggregate losses from industrial espionage are between 225 and 600 billion dollars

BUCHAREST, August X, 2022 - In a competitive economic climate, with a rapid dynamic of change migrating from the classic area of economic and socio-political challenges to geopolitical, geostrategic or even military challenges, business information, especially about competitors, are particularly useful tools.

Verification of potential partners has become mandatory and is not limited to the companies themselves, but extends to their partners - customers, suppliers or institutional stakeholders involved directly or indirectly in the conduct of those economic activities.

Some of this information is public and, taken together, can provide a broad picture of an entity. But there is a category of confidential information, such as development strategies, new markets, new products, marketing, sales, or various unpleasant insider situations, that has the potential to negatively impact the company if it goes outside the zone of confidentiality.

This information, collected through economic espionage are now much easier to steal as technology evolves - for example, the European Union recently announced that the phones used by some of its staff had been compromised by a private company's spyware - but also because of the lack of ethics of some business players who pursue personal or company benefits (increasing market share, for example) and thus use anti-competitive methods, bordering on the law, which they sometimes even go beyond.

"Economic espionage is a pressing problem in today's business environment, with global costs running into billions of euros. In the US alone, the estimated and proven aggregate losses from industrial espionage are between 225 and 600 billion dollars annually, with a definite impact on GDP.

In Romania, among the businesses with the highest exposure to this global risk are companies in IT and hardware production, energy, chemical industry, retail, financial sector, etc. Information about financial data, customers, industrial patents, marketing strategies, in short, any data that can be transformed into an economic advantage over the competition", says Gabriel Zgunea, CEO of Corporate Intelligence Agency.

Companies in the sectors concerned need to be aware of this risk caused by the geopolitical context and can prepare for these challenges by investing in protection programs, training or re-engineering. Underestimating the capabilities of "adversaries" always has negative consequences in any field.

"We saw recently that hackers in North Korea managed to steal millions of euros in cryptocurrencies, a country that, despite its economic and social problems, invests heavily in espionage and technology theft. We are about to experience a new Cold War, in which 'data' will be one of the most traded commodities.

Economic espionage costs less than investing in research and development departments, generating high returns in a very short time. In the 1970s, for example, East Germany stole an IBM 360, reverse-engineered it, and a year later they were producing 100 computers a year." says Gabriel Zgunea.

The risk of this information leaking to competitors is exponentially amplified by the unlimited reliance on employees beyond any records, who are given unfettered access to all kinds of company information.

The lack of an integrated strategic vision for the protection of sensitive data and information and the absence of specific measures to prevent the materialization of this type of vulnerability can cause significant damage to the company in question, such as reduced revenues, damage to reputation, loss of competitive advantage given by investments in research, innovation or development, distortions in the production chain or in daily operations.

What impact the lack of protection for sensitive data and information has on business 

There are situations where economic espionage is caused by violations of compliance policies, such as conflict of interest - spouses of employees of competing companies who did not disclose this to their employers, but were exchanging valuable information under the guise of harmless conversations.

At the same time, taking advantage of the non-implementation of "background check" or "profiling" activities, competing companies are targeting specialized staff in departments of interest in order to gain access to data of interest.

Between the situations resolved by Corporate Intelligence Agency, a Romanian bank that invested time, human and financial resources for almost 2 years in an innovative banking product and, 3 weeks before its launch, the product was put on the market by a competitor, the similarity and characteristics being obvious, down to the smallest details. A team of 15-20 people worked on the product, from the Corporate Intelligence Agency's analysis, 8 employees were likely to have breached confidentiality agreements with their employer.

Employees at another company recorded online departmental meetings on development strategies and played them back in front of acquaintances from competing companies, while in another situation, employees placed microphones in the meeting room to fully capture the data and information brought up. A top company's salary file was also distributed on social media, helping to demotivate the company's staff.

Sometimes access to confidential information is facilitated by corruption in the private sector - by financially or materially motivating employees to disseminate seemingly trivial or public information. For example, one of a company's suppliers obtained information from an employee about the prices charged by other suppliers in order to adjust its financial offer to its competitors in a multi-year contract.

Prevention and countermeasures - what can companies do?

• Awareness of the existence of this risk, especially in competitive business environments, and prioritization of economic information that requires additional protection;

• Implement a system for access to this kind of information, with access history;

• Rigorous selection and vetting of staff with access to information;

• Implement security policies to protect strategic or sensitive information, including physical information security measures;

• Updating or adopting compliance policies and declarations of interests and verifying their veracity to avoid conflicts;

• Regular checks of the premises used by management or teams involved in strategically important projects to detect potential clandestine audio/video surveillance devices installed for the purpose of information theft;

• Implement executive due diligence. Although common in the Western corporate environment, with managers or employees in certain departments undergoing a very thorough screening process before the final pre-recruitment interviews, ignoring this procedure causes problems later.

Once aware of these risks, specific professional training sessions and regular training sessions with employees handling sensitive company data are likely to exponentially limit the risk of information leakage.

About Corporate Intelligence Agency

Corporate Intelligence Agency is a risk management company dedicated exclusively to the business environment, specialized in identifying potential vulnerabilities, risks or business opportunities of the companies that use its services.

Corporate Intelligence Agency offers premium solutions in Applied Intelligence, Competitive Intelligence and Risk Management, by using the latest tools and technologies, along with the dynamism, creativity and, above all, the high level of expertise in the intelligence field of the experts in the team.

Corporate Intelligence Agency services are addressed to all companies and corporations that understand the importance of using professionals to generate reliable information that can inform decision-making processes, providing knowledge on socio-political phenomena or conjunctures, markets or situations of interest, as well as reducing risks or vulnerabilities in areas that may affect the company's economic and/or reputational interests.