A relatively new report on the extent to which foreign spies are stealing U.S. economic secrets is gaining attention not only for what it concludes but also for the fact that it actually names names.
The report comes by way of the Office of the National Counter Intelligence Executive and is titled Report to Congress on Foreign Economic Collection and Industrial Espionage, 2009 – 2011.
The report was released in October after word of significant cybersecurity breaches had occurred that resulted in the exfiltration of significant amounts of sensitive information. But it is an interesting read for several reasons.
One of them is the fact that the report calls out Russia and China as significant sources of espionage activities against the United States.
Another interesting point brought out in this report is the mention of human intelligence (HUMINT) tactics being employed.
While details on the HUMINT factor are scarce, this is a topic that typically is not discussed publicly.
The report calls out four areas of information that was identified as areas of “greatest interest” by foreign collectors.
• Information and communications technology (ICT), which forms the backbone of nearly every other technology.
• Business information that pertains to supplies of scarce natural resources or that provides foreign actors an edge in negotiations with US businesses or the US Government.
• Military technologies, particularly marine systems, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and other aerospace/aeronautic technologies.
• Civilian and dual-use technologies in sectors likely to experience fast growth, such as clean energy and health care/pharmaceuticals.
It goes on to warn about the acceleration of collection efforts across the cyber espionage spectrum. And it provides case examples and forecasts the progression of this threat ahead a few years.
All in all this report is a clear warning to all involved in research and development as well as the commercialization of new technology.
If the government and private sector fail to heed this warning, the economic damage will be substantial. Actions must be taken now to protect the economic future of the United States and defend the intellectual property the organizations working so hard to create it.
Kevin G. Coleman is a long-time security technology executive and former Chief Strategist at Netscape. He is Senior Fellow with the Technolytics Institute, where he provides consulting services on strategic technology and security issues.