Economic and industrial espionage

According to the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Combating Terrorism, economic and industrial espionage results in projected damage to around EUR 880 million annually for the Austrian economy. Experts estimate the number of unreported cases of annual damage to be 2 to 3 billion euros! But often the thieve isn’t always “the” russian or chinese hacker…

In extreme cases, the existence of your business is endangered by the stolen and illegally used knowledge. In the age of digitization, there are primarily other digital opportunities to spy on your company. In order to protect yourself from espionage, holistic security concepts are necessary. However, never underestimate the factor that we are all “human beeings”. Unfortunately, it often happens that sensitive information is discussed without paying attention to the environment…

Last summer, I accidentally overheard a conversation between two people at the next table at a business meeting in a coffee house in Vienna. There was hardly any space between the two tables and the men were talking loudly about internal company matters. Sensitive company data were discussed, customers, projects, deals and profits were also unfolded. I could even see the names, functions of the two gentlemen and the company at a glance – because they were still wearing their employee or access cards …

If i had been the bad guy, this situation would have been a godsend. 

What i want to tell you is that: The “human beeing” is often intentionally or unintentionally a security leak – especially if your employees are not sensitized or trained to do so. Because of that, the first Step is education and training. Protect your company and make your employees aware of it again and again.