How do you prevent competitors from stealing your ideas?
When three executives at Renault in Paris, France, were suspended and accused of leaking key company information to China, it came as no surprise to those in the highly competitive automotive manufacturing industry.
While GM would not comment specifically on information about security initiatives citing competition, Jason Easton, corporate communications manager for General Motors of Canada Ltd., said “at GM of Canada we are very conscious of confidentiality and competitiveness issues. While many of these issues have always existed—automobiles are one of the highest technology retail products available to consumers—the mediums through which information can be transferred, and the speed at which this can happen, are the challenges that many companies face.”
Canadian Metalworking Online also contacted Ford Motor Company and Chrysler, but neither of the companies would provide comments about measures they take to protect against industrial espionage.
In the Renault case, the three executives were suspected of leaking information related to the company’s electric vehicle program. The multi-billion dollar program is a key part of Renault’s growth strategy and has been working with Japanese partner Nissan.
According to a Reuters press wire story on January 7, this isn’t the first time France’s car industry has been hit by information leaks. In 2007, a Chinese student doing a work placement at car parts maker Valeo was given a prison sentence for obtaining confidential documents from the automaker.
How do you protect your company and your manufacturing ideas from competitors?
It’s not easy, according to J.D. LeaSure, president and CEO of ComSec LLC, a Virginia Beach, VA company specializing in counter surveillance, including technical surveillance countermeasures and counterespionage.
J.D. LeaSure, president and CEO of ComSec.
“The critical piece of advice I would give is recognize the fact that corporate espionage and industrial espionage is a very, very real and viable threat. It’s not just something you see in movies and it can have an impact on any business from small companies to Fortune 50 companies.”
He says the biggest threat is an insider one; he identifies four types of insider threats:
• Bribery. Employees are approached by an outside competitor or intelligence agent (hired by the competitor) and offered cash or some other incentive to leak confidential data.
• Group collusion. Several employees ban together to use their collective knowledge and privileges to gain access to confidential company information.
• Social engineering. The manipulation of network administrators or IT personnel by either an insider or an outsider who get these people to give up authentication information to obtain sensitive company information.
• Employee privileges. Employees who use their privileges to access proprietary or confidential information.
While companies should be aware of insider threats, an even bigger problem is today’s digital age.
“Everyone today has a cell phone and I can’t tell you how many organizations that I go into to conduct a technical surveillance countermeasure sweep that have no security protocols in place for the prevention of cell phones in meetings.”
Why are cell phones such a big threat in corporate or industrial espionage?
Most cellular phones have cameras and recording devices.
“There are so many programs that you can install on smart phones today that basically turn them into a bug. You lay a cell phone on a conference table and you activate it. It doesn’t light up or ring and it’s transmitting everything being said in the room.”
