Let’s say you own a Fortune 500 company, and a pesky competitor slowly eats away at your share of the market. Getting your hands on your competitor’s classified intel can turn the tide on the struggle to stay on top. Maybe, getting your hands on internal documents? Plans on their next business idea? Or even knowing what direction the company wants to take in the next year can be worth millions. Every company has weaknesses and identifying those weak points before the company is listed publicly allows investors to short the stocks when released for instant cash. Instead of an investor, let’s say you are a country with big ambition but lacks the technological prowess for research and development; giving a leg-up to your own companies to grow sounds great. The point is, there is a lot of demand for insider secrets for all corporations, and, with such demand, companies will open their deep pockets for a particular service. Welcome to Corporate Espionage.
By using former CIA, MI5 and KGB agents, big corporations will utilise any strategy to gain the upper hand. In essence, the corporate world is a game of chess. However, instead of competing ethically and clean, they sneak behind each other to discover their competitors’ ideas and business strategies before making their next move on the board. From Banks to Technology start-ups to even Law Firms, this blog will dive into the unclassified world of how some big corporations such as Disney, Sony, and others, conduct business.
The Business Of Corporate Espionage
In simple terms, Espionage is an elegant word for a spy. But to really understand what Corporate Espionage is and how it works, we need to first understand where the practice was first applied. As early as man could remember, wars have been a pivotal part of society and what better way to defeat your enemy than knowing their next step. As Sun Tzu (Author of the Art of War) states, “There is no place where Espionage is not possible”. Proven effective in war, how can such strategy be transferred to the corporate world? Like a battlefield, the corporate world continues to battle to reach the top of the market, skirmishing to obtain the biggest share. Having ‘spies’ allows the process to be more straightforward. Instead of investing millions on researching and years of trial and error, hiring private parties or companies like the Trident Research Group LLC and Diligence to find chips in your competitor’s armour sounds a lot more effective.
Desperate Times Call For Espionage
Corporate Espionage is expensive. Requiring unique experiences, which not many possess, the service can cost anywhere between $1,600 – $2,500+ per day. Moreover, some even charge a yearly retainer of up to $800,000. Nevertheless, regardless of the investment, hiring a team to spy on your competitor for months just to catch them watching TV every day may make you think twice. Therefore, it is only recommended to turn to Corporate Espionage if there is no other way to source the information. If paying close to a million for a private intelligence officer can make or save you millions or even billions, it seems like a no brainer. One insider agent stated that “in every transaction exceeding $1bil – at least one of the parties are using surveillance operators”. That’s why most of the customers involved are hedge funds, big investment companies and lawyers involved in high-stakes litigation. Since the demands for these services are so high, the client is often placed on a waiting list or for some extra $; they can jump the queue.
Desperate Time Call For Crimes?
Although laws such as the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 restrict the use of Corporate Espionage, major Espionage firms argue that they do not carry out any illegal work. Unless information obtained is used for blackmail or business strategies, intel otherwise cannot be used in courts as they are illegal. While some countries limit the boundary, other countries have none. Depending on the country’s law, almost anything goes – from bugging a house or car to intercepting emails. As one former agent says, “whatever it takes”. Some say the Eastern European agents go even further with their Espionage methods. Almost like every layer of the onion you unpeel, there is another layer under there. When millions and billions are on the line, it begs the question, are there deeper depths to this industry? As one insider agent comments, “we are only one scandal away from a – government crackdown”.
Let’s Talk Strategy
Now we know what it takes to hire a team and their unprincipled ways of getting the job done. Let’s talk about strategy. For a Corporate Espionage assignment, you will have a target to go after. From getting information to blackmail, the mission is to meet your client’s demands using traditional approaches like “The Mole Strategy” to turn current employees against their corporation or a more complex approach like “The Patsy Strategy” to seduce the information out of your target. The only absolute limit to what route you take is your imagination. Taking a trip back to your history class, using anything government spies have used can be transferred to the business world if the money justifies it. To diving into bins, breaking into offices, using satellite surveillance, the only limit is your imagination. And how many laws you want to break.
The Big Fish
In the playground of Corporate Espionage, one bully dominates the field. China goes above and beyond, taking the game to a whole new level. Fighting an economic warfare against the USA, China’s goal is to become the market leader in vital industries like Technology, Aerospace, A.I, Medicine and so forth. Instead of using vast resources to innovate and research, China looks to ‘steal’ information from rival nations like the USA. Involved in Corporate Espionage scandals over and over and over again for the past decade. Going as far as passing a new law under Article 14 of the National Intelligence Law, to have the right to turn any citizens into spies. Essentially, if an external company employs any Chinese citizen, they can be asked to leak classified information. But are China the only one? No, it goes without a doubt that other countries like China exploit the use of Corporate Espionage, but there is no denying that China does it the ‘best’.
This blog only dived into the shallow pool of topics that go much deeper. From understanding the niche industry of Corporate Espionage to the practicalities of the practice, to also questioning the morals of such services. Is Corporate Espionage a problem? Is it fair-game? Or is it just two titans fighting for a thrown? Regardless of our views, the industry of Corporate Espionage will continue to grow, pushing the boundaries corporations are willing to go. But will the law ever fully intervene? If so, why haven’t they already?
Resources Used
CBS News – Investigating Corporate Espionage
Netflix Documentary: SpyCraft
YouTube: WatchMojo.com – Top 10 Corporate Espionage Cases
YouTube: Smithsonian Channel – How the CIA turned on Soviet Industrial Espionage
YouTube: 60 Million Australian – Chinese spy spills secrets to expose Communist Espionage
Book: Sun Tzu – The Art of War
Company Website: Trident Research Group LLC
Company Website: Diligence
Website: (Investopedia) – Corporate Espionage Fact or Fiction? https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0310/corporate-espionage-fact-and-fiction.aspx
Podcast: Jocko Podcast 11
Podcast: Joe Rogan Experience #1368 (Edward Snowden)
Article: Spies Like Us: Why every company needs to worry about Corporate Espionage
Articles: Espionage in Digital Crime – Definition & Types
https://study.com/academy/lesson/espionage-in-digital-crime-definition-types.html
By: Asad A. Parvez
Muslim Lawyers Hub ™️ 
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