Basically, the term industrial espionage can be divided into two areas.

First, there is the so-called industrial espionage, which is a state-sponsored spying, which usually emanates from foreign intelligence services. On the other hand, there is also competition espionage. These include espionage actions carried out by private companies, usually aimed at giving themselves a competitive advantage.

In most cases, the focus of competition espionage is the procurement of third-party know-how.

Due to the progressive digitization in the company environment, today’s perpetrators mainly act via the Internet. Especially the interface between the company network and the Internet often serves as an entry point for hackers.

Furthermore, the spread of false information about certain companies has recently gained in importance. For example, measures of this type attempt to influence the stock market price or damage the reputation of a competitor. These and other current events repeatedly show the limits of IT security.

As recent polls show, every third German company has been the victim of a cyberattack in the past.

Above all, companies from the classical industry, such as Suppliers of gearboxes in mechanical engineering as well as manufacturers in the automotive industry are disproportionately affected. For example, Siemens alone records around 1,000 active attempts to attack the IT infrastructure each month.

In particular, the intensive development work of German products and the resulting efficiency of the products make the companies an attractive destination for many hackers abroad.

Since the attacks on the digital way are relatively unspectacular and high concealed effort, they are often noticed very late by the victims. The persecution of the perpetrators is also very difficult in practice, because the attacks usually originate abroad such as. Have Russia or China.

As mentioned before, in most cases attacks can not be detected directly.

It is often noticed on the basis of indirect signs that one’s own company has been the victim of a spy attack.

A clear indicator is, among other things, when a direct competitor brings plagiarism of its own developments on the market. Even the sudden appearance of secret information on the Internet – so-called leaks – is a clear sign that their own servers were cracked.

Should a competing company always respond to the publication of its own innovations at the right time, this may also point to espionage attacks.

Even though the level of intelligence is very low in the area of cybercrime, attacks should always be reported to the competent authorities.
Furthermore, it is advisable to optimize your own IT defense mechanisms. It is important here that not only selective solutions are chosen, but rather a holistic concept is developed

Since many attacks are carried out in the form of ransomware, DDoS attacks, brute force methods, etc., also the own staff must be informed about the mechanisms of phishing emails, hacker attacks and other fraud attempts.

Conclusion:

Since espionage attacks can cause great damage to companies, which may even threaten their existence, companies should not take the subject of IT security lightly. In principle, an investment in your own digital infrastructure always pays off.