

Strategic organizations such as Operators of Vital Importance (OVIs) are the target of choice for hackers. Technological developments allow businesses to be more agile, but they also call for efforts to be stepped up in terms of security. And the threat to corporate data only continues to grow as more and more digital tools are rolled out. A company doesn’t start or end at the front door anymore. Businesses are now hyperconnected – through computers, tablets, and smartphones – and staff are in constant contact with their colleagues as well as external partners. The risk of being through digital tools has increased considerably in recent years. Digital transformation increasing the risk of industrial espionage This is presumed to be an act of industrial espionage, carried out by a competitor or a foreign power. On the night of 24 to 25 September 2019, a Thales engineer who was working on underwater defense projects had a work computer stolen, which contained sensitive data, including some concerning the construction of military equipment. CFOs and CLOs have been robbed of their laptop when it was locked in the trunk of their car. Publishing fake news or information at the right time could weaken a company and allow a competitor to get hold of sensitive information after a successful takeover bid.

“An economic espionage operation may have another aim in mind: to destabilize strategic enterprises. According to Olivier Hassid, Director at PwC and head of its security and economic intelligence council, an economic espionage operation can come in various forms: theft of computers in hotel rooms or cars, disappearance of patents on board a train between Paris and Brussels, cyberattacks, raids on capital during a financing transaction, on-site espionage during a visit, and so on.

PwC has tried to decipher the phenomenon that is industrial espionage. A range of espionage techniques to choose from With digital transformation, working methods have changed, but many of the problems remain the same for businesses. The authors of the report state that many attacks were identified in 2013 “ in the field of fundamental research alone where there is a poor culture of protection, although the aeronautics and health sectors were also targeted”. In 2014, a report by a French parliamentary delegation to the country’s intelligence service stated that economic espionage was now happening on an “ industrial scale”, and almost 20% of the attacks are directed at the Paris region. In December 1965, four years before Concorde first took to the air, the director of Russian airline Aeroflot’s office in Paris was arrested for possessing detailed plans of the brakes, landing gear, and frame of the supersonic airliner. And industrial espionage is a very serious threat, in particular for strategic or critical businesses.Įconomic espionage has been around for decades. These days, sensitive information needs to be securely protected, as the target of choice for hackers.

Businesses can wage economic war as much as any country could, all with the aim of extracting strategic information. The use of honeytraps to extort information and the placement of spying interns are among the techniques employed by Chinese spies in their industrial espionage operations, according to leaked French intelligence files.Cyberspying is one of the biggest problems facing companies today. Jump to navigation Chinese use honeytraps to spy on French companies, intelligence report claims
