Annual Report to Congress on Foreign Economic Collection and Industrial Espionage, FY 2008
Abstract
The threat to the United States from foreign economic intelligence collection and industrial espionage has continued unabated since the publication of the "Annual Report to Congress on Foreign Economic Collection and Industrial Espionage, 2007." Economic espionage cases went up slightly and nearly every day brought reports -- in the press and in the classified world -- of new cyber attacks against U.S. Government and business entities. Additionally, the increasing use of new modes of communication and social networking has provided uncharted opportunities for transferring information and espionage for enterprising foreign intelligence services. Foreign collectors continued to target a wide variety of unclassified and classified information and technologies in a range of sectors. According to the counterintelligence (CI) community, which has the most detailed information on foreign collection efforts against dual-use, export-controlled, and military items, the most heavily targeted sectors across all agencies included aeronautics, information systems, lasers and optics, sensors, and marine systems. Cyber threats are increasingly pervasive, and several key adversaries have drastically expanded their computer network operations for intelligence collection and military use. Moreover, the techniques used and the growing computer globalization made it increasingly difficult to detect and prevent intrusions. Tracking, analyzing, and countering foreign collection efforts are increasingly complex challenges as the growth of multinational organizations in the global marketplace compounds and obscures the threat to the United States. Appendix A provides descriptions of Federal agencies and departments that work to protect sensitive information and technologies from unlawful foreign acquisition. Appendix B is a table that presents selected arrests and convictions for economic collection and industrial espionage cases in FY 2008.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 23, 2009
- Accession Number
- ADA506093