Industrial espionage
When hiring a new employee, the employer, in addition to concluding an employment contract, can sign an agreement on non-disclosure of commercial secrets with him. However, this does not always protect against leakage of classified data. Often, unscrupulous competitors resort to dishonest methods to obtain information of interest about the company's activities. Therefore, owners and managers are interested in how to prevent leakage of confidential information and protect themselves from the intrigues of competitors. Let's figure it out. Let's also talk about prosecution for industrial espionage.
What is meant by industrial espionage?
The interpretation of the definition of industrial espionage is different. For example, in the interpretation of the legal dictionary, espionage in the industry is one of the activities used as a competitive struggle. The main task of industrial espionage is to obtain information that constitutes an economic secret. Gathering information about competitors by illegal means to oust them from the product market without investing in their own developments can be attributed to a crime. The used methods of bribery, threats, when they do not hesitate to resort to blackmail or steal documents containing classified data, from the point of view of the law, are regarded as a criminal offense. The objectivity of this crime consists of illegal methods of collecting information about a legal entity or its activities, personal data of officials and specialists related to confidential information. Subjectivity consists of the deliberate intent of the competitor's agents to find out the secrets of the company, to make them public, transferring them to others, and selling them.
A glossary of business terms gives its interpretation of industrial espionage as a collection of competitors' trade secrets. Typically, industrial espionage involves:
- introduction of new developments;
- process innovation;
- research plans;
- upcoming promotions.
To achieve the set goals, methods of obtaining information of interest prohibited by law are used:
- installation of devices for wiretapping telephone conversations or reading data from personal computers;
- recruiting agents to work as employees of a competing company or gaining confidence in employees who own classified information by their professional activities.
In the interpretation of the modern economic dictionary, industrial espionage should be understood as the illegal obtaining of information by a company about the activities of another organization. The legal form of ownership of industrial enterprises and organizations, in this case, does not matter.
The list of information of interest to competitors may include:
- blueprints;
- samples of raw materials, materials, finished products used in production;
- business plans;
- personal data of employees.
The methods used include criminal acts, which consist of the use of illegal methods of taking possession of information of a confidential nature:
- theft of paper documents or files from a computer network;
- bribery of corrupt employees to take over data.
What is the main purpose of industrial espionage
The key to the success of a business, including industrial production, largely depends on the use of unique technologies, a correctly chosen course of development, and business ties with reliable partners. Namely, without revealing secrets to competitors, it is possible to get ahead of them.
Using the information obtained about the achievements of another organization, industrial production, will allow:
- easily apply them in your own production;
- intercept suppliers of raw materials or buyers of industrial products;
- disrupt the planned deals, causing damage to competitors.
The collection of information about the company, its field of activity, the manager, and other publicly available data is not prohibited by law. Here are some of the criminal targets of industrial espionage.
Collection of information about the company from open and closed sources, which are needed for market intelligence in a certain region, if a competing company is going to enter this market, open branches. This data can be used to the detriment of an organization that has long been working in the area.
This includes cases:
- interception of investors and the conclusion of profitable deals;
- selling information to other competitors;
- use for blackmail of data about the personal life of employees to obtain information representing commercial secrets.
One of the tasks of espionage started against competitors may be to amend the primary sources of information.
This is achieved by:
- active actions - forging, correcting, erasing information that is, for example, on a USB drive;
- passive actions expressed by inaction - when they do not enter timely updated data, do not correct the identified errors.
As a rule, this is caused by a desire to convey false information to a competitor in the hope that, being in a delusion about the real state of affairs, he will commit erroneous actions.
Material losses, for example, will result in:
- the conclusion of deliberately unfavorable contracts due to misinformation about the second party to the transaction;
- transfer of funds to the settlement accounts of fraudsters;
- hiring incompetent professionals or employees who are agents of competitors.
Special programs can be used to protect the information in corporate databases from being modified by bribed competitive employees.
Having set the goal to harm business rivals, they use illegal intelligence to destroy documents, materials, information. This works if the availability of specific data is a prerequisite for solving the problems of competitors, issuing loans for business development or investment.
So, for example:
- for a private detective agency, the disappearance of the collected evidence is fraught with loss of earnings and reputation, which will further affect the demand for services provided;
- for industrial enterprises, the destruction of documents threatens to disrupt the fulfillment of contractual conditions with business partners, the inability to implement the planned activities.
The listed and other goals to eliminate competitors, harm them, if possible, undermine their reputation are realized in the implementation of industrial espionage. Depending on the tasks assigned, methods are chosen, not caring how legal it is, not to mention decency.
Methods used in industrial espionage
No business can develop without planning, using information related to the field of activity, markets for goods. From applied production technologies and secret modernization developments to meetings of a manager with potential partners, corporate data can become the object of interest of competitors. Taking measures of illegal access to information for further use with the ultimate goal of obtaining benefits, when, as they say - "the end justifies the means", and there is what is commonly called industrial espionage.
In Russia, as well as in other countries of the post-Soviet space, as such, industrial espionage appeared in the mid-1990s during the transition to the capitalist model of relations. The first forms of its manifestation were of a primitive nature, expressed in blackmail, intimidation with physical violence against entrepreneurs and their family members, and raider seizures. The development of technology has also affected the expansion of opportunities to obtain secret data illegally, to use it in unfair competition. Speaking today about trade secrets or other confidential information that requires special protection from outsiders, we mean the risk of using a variety of methods of industrial espionage.
There are no limits to the ingenuity that competitors go for in seeking information.
To obtain data of interest, technical documents, or business projects using industrial espionage, dishonest companies:
- looking for ways to get close to leading specialists of competitors to find out the nuances concerning their activities;
- lure the best specialists to themselves, offering favorable conditions in case of information transfer;
- after learning the details of the private life of a competitor's employees, they use it for blackmail or bribery;
- send their agents to the firm as qualified specialists who can be given access to classified materials;
- they reach elementary crimes, stealing drawings, documents, samples of products, raw materials used, penetrating the territory of an enterprise (company) under the guise of employees of various service or communal services, using forceful methods of attacking persons with access to classified data;
- track business correspondence;
- illegally obtain information from corrupt officials;
- technical means are used to collect data - various eavesdropping devices, bugs, unauthorized access to computer networks;
- monitor employees in the classic version - using outdoor surveillance, also using technical means (night vision devices, photo, and video filming, unmanned aerial vehicles that enable remote tracking);
- enter into false negotiations on cooperation with the subsequent refusal, after receiving the necessary information, and so on.
The flaws of industrial espionage
Any information received about competitors, no matter how much effort is made, ingenuity and investment tend to lose relevance.
So, the affected company, having identified a leak of classified data, can:
- change tactics of behavior;
- take additional measures to accelerate the introduction of new technologies or conclude a deal;
- find other solutions from the current situation.
Statistics show that operational-tactical information becomes outdated, losing its significance by 10% every day. This means that within a month, the information obtained may be worth nothing.
Liability for involvement in industrial espionage
Despite the signed agreements on the non-proliferation of personal data of colleagues or classified information related to trading secrets with employees who gain access to this information due to their professional activities, there is no guarantee that:
- the person does not work for competitors;
- in the course of work in the company, he did not get close to the agents of competitors and, through negligence or as a result of blackmail, does not transmit information of strategic importance to the company.
If there is evidence of guilty actions (or inaction), which resulted in a data leak, moral damage to the injured employees or material damage to industrial production was caused:
- the employer has the right to dismiss the employee, observing the procedural requirements, by the norms of labor legislation (subparagraph "c" of paragraph 6 of Article 81 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation);
- apply to law enforcement agencies to conduct an investigation, which, upon confirmation of the employee's criminal actions, will end up with criminal punishment for him.
What the law says about industrial espionage as a criminal offense
Industrial espionage remains an urgent problem for business and the profitability of industrial production. Chapter 22 of the Criminal Code is devoted to issues and measures of punishment for crimes in the sphere of economic activity.
About industrial espionage, Article 183 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is applied, which provides:
- collection of a fine for the collection of information representing a commercial secret by illegal means (the amount varies from 500 thousand rubles to the amount of the convicted person's annual income);
- correctional labor for up to one year;
- forced labor or serving a sentence in places of deprivation of liberty (up to two years).
If the secrets of industrial production, trade secrets are disclosed by an employee who has access to information on the job or in the process of performing job duties, the penalties are tougher:
- the amount of the fine was increased to 1 million rubles or two years' earnings (other income);
- for a period of up to three years, the perpetrator will be deprived of the right to hold leadership positions, to engage in certain activities;
- the term of correctional, forced labor, or imprisonment has also been increased to 3 years.
In the event of large-scale damage caused by industrial espionage:
- a fine of 1.5 million rubles or in the number of earnings for a three-year period;
- disqualification for up to 3 years;
- forced labor or imprisonment for up to 5 years.
If the criminal actions entailed grave consequences, you can be imprisoned for up to 7 years.
Practice shows that entrepreneurs or legal entities, engaged in unfair competitive intelligence or illegal extraction of information about the industrial area of the facility, can select the right personnel. Instead of finding their own methods to increase the demand for services or industrial products, unscrupulous competitors hire professional agents. Often these are people who can use modern technologies or are familiar with the characteristics of the psychological impact on others.
To protect confidential data, classified information constituting a trade secret, you need to define a clear strategy. Before giving access to such information to an employee, it is advisable to check, within the limits of what is permitted (without violating the prohibitions on collecting information about private life), the information provided about previous work experience, possible connections with competitors. It will not be superfluous to establish a procedure for holding accountable for the leakage of information about the personal life of a manager or other employees, industrial production secrets, and other objects of espionage.
The activities of our own security service are effective, the use of technologies that allow you to control employees.
23.11.2020
