Industrial Espionage Becoming 'Big Business'

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Corporations increasingly are vulnerable to spies, say intelligence analysts

The world's economic globalization has intensified competition in every industrial sector, including defense, and with that has come a concomitant rise in industrial espionage, said business intelligence experts.

"Corporate espionage is growing," said Ira Winlder, president of the Internet Security Advisors Group. He spoke during a conference of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO), in Washington, D.C.

What are the spies after? According to Winlder, oil, marketing plans, pharmaceutical formulas, merger and acquisition data and component technology Winkler's advice to industry is to "sweat the small stuff, because that's where the billions of dollars are. Use the 95-5 rule, and take care of the 5 percent stuff"

In 1999, that "5 percent stuff" cost industry an estimated $100 billion in losses from industrial espionage activity. According to a survey by the American Society of Industrial Security and Price Waterhouse …