Case Study of Netspionage

¶ … Netspionage, which is basically network-enabled espionage. The case entails a high-technology corporation that is situated in California which became a victim of trade secret theft to the Russians. The instance started when authorized users realized when they opened their offices on the next working day, that their computers, that they had switched off the previous day were powered on and also files as well as folders reorganized and some open.

However, this matter was brushed off with the excuse that the accessed files had no significant value in addition to the fact that the accessed systems were deemed not to have any sensitive or important information. The following weekend, a desktop unit was stolen from the company and this unit had in it stored data and files consisting of valuable information in the form of quality control measures and practices for numerous of the major products of the company.

The individual who had access to these documents could gain an understanding of manufacturing and quality control processes the company employed and could, hence, easily duplications the same (Boni and Kovacich, 2000). In analysis, the case study shows just how much information collection has evolved over the years and elucidates how the theft of trade secrets was done and could still be possibly done.

However, in the present day, there are much more novel, subtle and discreet methods of stealing by making use of the internet, which are much easier to collect or gather delicate information or even corrupt critical information. Different from the case study where the spies opted to steal a whole desktop from the organization, netspionage in the contemporary encompasses aspects such as computer crime and also cyber warfare. These are threats which are now a real danger to not only corporations but to governments as well (Boni and Kovacich, 2000).

Netspionage is a threat that is real and through the case study it can be seen that its potential impact can be compared to an adversity that an organization might not be able to recover from, and at the same time, an aspect that would give a competitor a great competitive edge. For instance, in this case, the information stolen from the company gave the Russian intelligence the advantage as the products of the company offered them dual benefits not only through defense but also for their commercial products.

In the present day, technology theft and competitive intelligence are common line of attacks that are undertaken not only by companies but also by state intelligence in order to access information they require to survive and succeed in this era of serious business warfare and gaining a competitive advantage (Boni and Kovacich, 2000). For instance, it can be considered that Samsung would work so hard to know what Apple Corporation plans on unveiling on its new iPhone and obtain the technology information that it does not have and vice versa.

To start with, the company should have placed new software for password security to deny unauthorized access to the computers and the systems. In addition the company should have employed disk drive locks to ensure that only the authorized personnel can copy files from.