information and technologies from U.S. corporations, and that some 100 countries spent a portion of their gross national product on collecting proprietary economic information (Richter, 1995, 8). Ironically, a number of these countries, including Germany, Japan, South Korea, and France, developed their modern intelligence services with assistance from the U.S. intelligence community. Additional resources are also expended by many countries in order to collect nonproprietary information through accessing environments not protected or classified. Conducting Economic Espionage Many spy agencies around the world are adapting classic spy techniques from military and political espionage endeavors to conduct economic espionage. Agencies use a number of "intrusive" methods to obtain classified proprietary economic information relating to trade secrets. A country's intelligence service will also, at certain times, use what can be described as "nonintrusive" methods to obtain nonproprietary information. These methods might involve monitoring the marketing surveys of a company or an organization, soliciting disclosures by employees, and researching published materials that can be processed into information useful to spy agencies. Intrusive Methods The methods listed below constitute the intrusive methods most widely used to collect proprietary information involving trade secrets. Electronic Access of Protected Environments * Eavesd...
