COMPUTER SECURITY FUNDAMENTALS

CHAPTER 7
INDUSTRIAL ESPIONAGE IN CYBERSPACE

CHAPTER 7 OBJECTIVES
When students finish reading this chapter, they will be able to:

Know what is meant by industrial espionage.

Understand the low-technology methods used to attempt industrial espionage.

Be aware of how spyware is used in espionage.

Know how to protect a system from espionage.

CHAPTER OVERVIEW
Industrial espionage is a real and growing problem. Company economic goals are
frequently dependent on accurate and often sensitive data. With billions of dollars at stake,
private companies may become engaged in industrial espionage. It can be difficult to
accurately assess just how great a problem it is. For obvious reasons, companies that
perpetrate corporate espionage do not share that they do it, and companies that are victims
of such espionage often do not want to reveal that fact. To protect yourself and your
company, students must learn about espionage methods and safeguards. In the exercises
at the end of this chapter, students run antispyware, key loggers, and screen capture
software to become familiar with how they work.
The major sections in this chapter are

1. What Is Industrial Espionage? This section describes industrial espionage and why it is an IT security
problem.

2. Information as an Asset. This section describes how to determine the value of your data.

3. How Does Espionage Occur? High- and low-tech methods for the collection of corporate data are covered.

4. Protecting Against Industrial Espionage. Eleven ways to protect your company from espionage are
described.

5. Real-World Examples of Industrial Espionage. Five examples of real-world espionage are used.

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CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. Chapter 7 Objectives

II. Introduction

III. What Is Industrial Espionage?

IV. Information as an Asset

Real-World Examples of Industrial Espionage

Example 1: VIA Technology

Example 2: General Motors

Example 3: Interactive Television Technologies, Inc.

Example 4: Bloomberg, Inc.

Example 5: Avant Software

Industrial Espionage and You

V. How Does Espionage Occur?

Low-Tech Industrial Espionage

Spyware Used in Industrial Espionage

Steganography Used in Industrial Espionage

Phone Taps and Bugs

VI. Protecting Against Industrial Espionage

VII. Industrial Espionage Act

Spear Phishing

VIII. Summary

IX. Test Your Skills

X. Exercises

XI. Projects

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KEY TERMS
asset identification Identifying all the assets you must protect. This is a critical step to
secure any system.

dumpster diving The process to search through trash looking for information that might
be useful in hacking (particularly social engineering) or identity theft.

encryption The act to encrypt a message. This usually involves altering a message so
that it cannot be read without the key and the decryption algorithm.

industrial espionage The use of espionage for purely economic purposes.

key logger Software that logs keystrokes on a computer.

social engineering Using interpersonal skills to extract information about a computer

system and its security.

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