Just recently, the
NSA created a buzz around the world over the
leakage of confidential documents that cited the agency’s spying activities virtually
on every American worldwide.
Of course, this solicited a public uproar from Americans that have been perpetually pampered by the trappings of democracy.
When it comes to business, however, espionage is something that
has been around for as long as collective memory can remember. In fact, one can
make a claim that since the earliest days of commerce, there had been espionage.
The methods
and gadgets used for spying on competitors have changed over time, but the
desire to uncover a rival’s secrets has not.
Below is the list of equally famous and infamous cases of recorded corporate espionage through the years.
1. Vintage
Copycat
Francois Xavier d’Entrecolles was a French Jesuit priest who
discovered the Chinese technique of manufacturing porcelain through his
investigations in China in the early 1700s.
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| Source: www.chinese-porcelain-art.com |
D’Entrecolles used direct observation at the kilns, as well as directly consulted
Chinese technical sources.
Soon, he became a leading maker of high-quality porcelain, and by then, began sending letters to Europe, describing the nitty-gritty of the
Oriental craft to Western audience.
2. For all
the tea in China!
In the 1800s, China had monopoly of the tea industry, something
the British just couldn’t stomach. So the London-based East India Company hired
Robert Fortune, a Scottish botanist and adventurer, to smuggle tea plants,
seeds, and secrets out of China and into British-ruled India.
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Similar to other European travelers of the period, Fortune disguised
as a Chinese merchant in his journeys beyond the newly established treaty port
areas.
Not only was Fortune's purchase of tea plants forbidden by the
Chinese government, but his travels were also beyond the allowable day’s
journey from the European treaty ports.
He is most remembered for using Wardian cases to sustain seedlings. Using these small greenhouses,
Fortune introduced 20,000 tea plants and seedlings to the Darjeeling region of
India.
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He also brought with him a group of trained Chinese tea workers
who would facilitate the production of tea leaves. It was called by the writer
Sarah Rose as the “greatest single act of corporate espionage in history.”
And fittingly so. For within his lifetime, India surpassed China
as the leader in tea production worldwide.
3. Driving
Home the Competition
It’s bad enough for a company when a top executive leaves to join a competitor.
So it was a multiple whammy for General Motor’s Opel when production
chief Jose Ignacio Lopez and seven other executives left to join the rival German automaker Volkswagen in 1993.
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Shortly thereafter, Opel accused Volkswagen of industrial
espionage over an alleged missing bundle of confidential documents. In response,
VW countered with accusations of defamation.
In the end, the companies agreed to one of the largest settlements
of its kind: Opel would drop its lawsuits in exchange for VW’s pledge to buy $1
billion of GM parts over seven years. In addition, VW would pay Opel $100
million.
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Volkswagen still refused to apologize, though, showing that even
multinational car companies can be as stubborn as 5-year-old children.
4. Razor Sharp
In 1997, out of anger at his supervisor, Steven Louis Davis faxed and
e-mailed drawings of Gillette’s new razor design to competitors.
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Davis was an engineer at Wright Industries Inc., a designer of
fabrication equipment that was hired by Gillette to help develop its next
generation shaver.
Davis immediately pled guilty to theft of trade secrets and wire
fraud, was sentenced to 27 months in prison, and was ordered to pay $1.3
million in restitution.
5. Trash
Talking
In 2000, out of “civic duty,” Larry Ellison of Oracle Corporation hired
a detective agency to investigate on the groups that supported Microsoft.
Oracle employed Investigative Group International to look into actions by two
research organizations, the Independent Institute and the National Taxpayers
Union, that were releasing studies supportive of Microsoft.
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Ellison said Oracle sought evidence that the groups were receiving
financial support from Microsoft during its antitrust trial.
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6. More Trash
Talking
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Their cunning plan included the ridiculously going through Unilever’s trash in search of documents. However, P&G denied Fortune Magazine’s allegation that their operatives pretended to be market analysts.
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7. Operation
Shady RAT
In what was described as one of the largest cyberattacks, spies
hacked more than 70 companies, governments, and nonprofit organizations beginning
in 2006.
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Security company McAfee didn’t name the perpetrator in its report,
but suggests that the targeting of various athletic oversight organizations
around the time of the 2008 Summer Olympics “potentially pointed a finger at a
state actor behind the intrusions.”
Dell SecureWorks traced the same attacks and pointed the source to
China. Hackers took information from some of the victims over a period as long
as two years.
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8. HP’s
Take on Big Brother
In 2006, Hewlett-Packard’s general counsel, at the command of HP
chair Patricia Dunn, contracted a team of independent security experts to
investigate board members and several journalists in order to identify the
source of an information leak.
In turn, those security experts recruited private investigators
who used a spying technique known as pretexting, which involved investigators
impersonating HP board members and nine journalists (including reporters for
CNET, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal) in order to obtain their
phone records. They also trawled through garbage and followed reporters.
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As a result, Dunn was fired. HP also agreed to pay $14.5 million
to settle an investigation by California’s attorney general, $6.3 million to
settle shareholder lawsuits, and an undisclosed amount to settle a case filed
by journalists at the New York Times and Business Week.
9.
Drilling Operations
In 2009, Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell and BP were among the oil companies targeted by hackers working through internet servers in China, stealing proprietary information from the energy companies.
IT security firm McAfee reported on 10 February that the attacks
had resulted in the loss of project-financing information relating to oil and
gas field bids and operations.
In 2009, Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell and BP were among the oil companies targeted by hackers working through internet servers in China, stealing proprietary information from the energy companies.
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The attacks, dubbed as Night Dragon, targeted computerized
topographical maps worth “millions of dollars” that locate potential oil reserves.
In some of the cases, hackers had undetected access to company networks
for more than a year.
10. Complaint
Lodged
In 2009 Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide lodged a complaint
against Hilton Hotels for corporate espionage. This happened
after Hilton employed 10 executives and managers from Starwood who downloaded “truckloads”
of documents before leaving for the bigger group.
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The said executives were involved in developing Starwood’s “lifestyle
and luxury” hotels, including the St. Regis, W, and Luxury Collection brands.
Starwood’s accusations were centered around luxury brand ideas,
with the former head of Starwood’s luxury brands group alleged to have
downloaded “truckloads” of documents before leaving for the bigger firm.
Starwood had claimed that the executives hired by Hilton stole
information about Starwood’s W hotel brand to develop the Denizen line of
properties.
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