This inability to identify purposes can suggest that hacker attacks have no limitations. Finally, hacker attacks make people feel vulnerable because the perpetrators are unknown. Industrial Espionage Industrial espionage involves collecting proprietary data from private corporations or government agencies for the benefit of another company or organization. Industrial espionage can be perpetrated either by companies seeking to improve their competitive advantage or by governments seeking to aid their domestic industries. Foreign industrial espionage carried out by a government is known as economic espionage.
Industrial espionage is on the rise.
The most damaging types of stolen information include manufacturing and product development information. Other types of information stolen include sales and cost data, client lists, and research and planning information. Within the area of economic espionage, the Central Intelligence Agency states that the main objective is obtaining information related to technology, but that information on U.S. government policy deliberations concerning foreign affairs and information on commodities, interest rates, and other economic factors is also a target. The Federal Bureau of Investigation concurs that technology-related information is the main target, but also cites corporate proprietary information such as negotiating positions and other contracting data as a target. Malicious code is sometimes mistakenly associated only with personal computers, but can also attack more sophisticated systems.