According to the aforementioned report to Congress:
"The industries that have been the targets in most cases of
economic espionage and other collection activities include
biotechnology; aerospace; telecommunications, including
the technology to build the 'information superhighway';
computer software/ hardware; advanced transportation
and engine technology; advanced materials and coatings,
including 'stealth' technologies; energy research; defense
and armaments technology; manufacturing processes; and
semiconductors. Proprietary business information-that is,
bid, contract, customer, and strategy in these sectors is
aggressively targeted. Foreign collectors have also shown
great interest in government and corporate financial and
trade data".
The collection methods range from the traditional - agent
recruitment and break ins - to the technologically
fantastic. Mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, research
and development partnerships, licensing and franchise
agreements, friendship societies, international exchange
programs, import-export companies - often cover up for
old fashioned reconnaissance. Foreign governments
disseminate disinformation to scare off competitors - or
lure then into well-set traps.
Foreign students, foreign employees, foreign tourist
guides, tourists, immigrants, translators, affable
employees of NGO's, eager consultants, lobbyists, spin
doctors, and mock journalists are all part of national
concerted efforts to prevail in the global commercial
jungle. Recruitment of traitors and patriots is at its peak in
international trade fairs, air shows, sabbaticals, scientific
congresses, and conferences.
On May 2001, Takashi Okamoto and Hiroaki Serizwa
were indicted of stealing DNA and cell line reagents from
Lerner Research Institute and the Cleveland Clinic
Foundation. This was done on behalf of the Institute of
Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN) in Japan - an
outfit 94 funded by the Japanese government. The
indictment called RIKEN "an instrumentality of the
government of Japan".
The Chinese Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications
was involved on May 2001 in an egregious case of theft of
intellectual property. Two development scientists of
Chinese origin transferred the PathStar Access Server
technology to a Chinese corporation owned by the
ministry. The joint venture it formed with the
thieves promptly came out with its own product probably
based on the stolen secrets.
The following ad appeared in the Asian Wall Street
Journal in 1991 - followed by a contact phone number in
western Europe:
"Do you have advanced/privileged information of any
type of project/contract that is going to be carried out in
your country? We hold commission/agency agreements
with many large European companies and could introduce
them to your project/contract. Any commission received
would be shared with yourselves".
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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