So how would you know if cyber spies have already breached your OT network and stolen sensitive data from historians and ladder logic in PLCs, from which they can infer design secrets and other corporate IP? How about third-party vendors who connect directly to your OT network via laptops or USB drives, bypassing traditional perimeter defenses like firewalls and IDS/IPS devices? And according to KMPG, operational information obtained from production systems, such as production and inventory data, can also be valuable as it enables competitors or suppliers to perform market manipulation and weaken negotiating positions. Where is that wealth of IP going? In many cases, it’s going to countries like China, whose government has designated several industries as “strategic.” Businesses receive government “intelligence data” (i.e., stolen IP), which enables them to improve their competitive edge and reduce time spent on R&D.įor many companies, such as those in the pharmaceutical sector, IP is much more valuable than any physical asset. He called it “the greatest transfer of wealth in history.” Cyber Command at the time, assessed the financial value of industrial espionage / cyberespionage losses at about $338 billion a year, including intellectual property losses and downtime due to cyberattacks. In 2012, General Keith Alexander, who was NSA Director and commander of U.S. Industrial espionage in History – “Greatest transfer of wealth in history” These days there’s an approach that’s much easier and less costly for the perpetrator: industrial espionage / cyberespionage. The scheme took several years to develop and millions of dollars to fund-yet they were still busted. The FBI recently busted six people in Houston, charging them with stealing trade secrets from a marine engineering company and sending the secrets to a manufacturer in China. The problem with getting an insider to steal trade secrets is that it takes time and money. Lombe returned to England and built the first successful powered continuous production unit in the world, based on the purloined technology. At night, working by candlelight, Lombe made illicit drawings of the proprietary equipment the Italians used to spin silk on a large scale. In the early 18th century, a British silk spinner named John Lombe made a great effort to get hired at an Italian manufacturing company. Industrial espionage is sometimes credited for kick-starting the Industrial Revolution. And you probably already know this if you work in industries such as manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, and chemicals. Theft of trade secrets and corporate intellectual property (IP) such as proprietary manufacturing processes, formulas, recipes, and product designs has been happening for decades. Industrial Espionage is a major threat to the Manufacturing Sector