mmarizing the technological capabilities of selected countries to conduct economic espionage against the United States. The article also addresses public-sector initiatives in the United States to protect its economic interests. Economic Espionage: What Are We Talking About? According to the FBI, "economic espionage means foreign-power sponsored or coordinated intelligence activity directed at the U.S. Government or U.S. corporations, establishments, or persons for the purpose of unlawfully obtaining proprietary economic information" (FBI, 1995, 2). In Section 1839 of the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 "trade secret" is defined to mean all forms and types of financial, business, scientific, technical, economic, or engineering information, including patterns, plans, compilations, program devices, formulas, designs, prototypes, methods, techniques, processes, procedures, programs or codes, whether tangible or intangible, and whether or how stored, compiled, or memorialized physically, electronically, graphically, photographically, or in writing." Foreign intelligence services that seek out America's trade secrets can damage national and corporate interests much more readily than can traditional "industrial espionage" whereby one company attempts through legal and illegal methods to learn the trade secrets of another. A recent survey of 173 nations found that 57 were actively running operations to obtain proprietary economic ...
