preview

Economic Espionage Essay

Decent Essays

Economic Espionage act (1996) states that
“Whoever, intending or knowing that the offense will benefit any foreign government, foreign instrumentality, or foreign agent, knowingly without authorization copies, duplicates, sketches, draws, photographs, downloads, uploads, alters, destroys, photocopies, replicates, transmits, delivers, sends, mails, communicates, or conveys a trade secret shall, except as provided in subsection (b), be fined not more than $500,000 or imprisoned not more than 15 years, or both.”.
It is important to note that the clause clearly stipulates that the eligible person for the punishment in such espionage is one who has intentions of benefiting another corporation or group apart from the one he/she is working …show more content…

According to a Annual Report to Congress on Foreign Economic Collection and Industrial Espionage (2008), a wide variety of foreign entities have attempted to illegally acquire trade secrets and US technology a problem attributed to outsourcing research and development. Most companies in the United States have been encouraging outsourcing research and development as a means improving themselves in terms of products being universally usable. This has led such companies setting up bases in foreign countries where such research is carried out. These bases have well been used as a gateway for economical espionage since foreign entities can easily access such bases and access information on the said companies or U.S in general. This may be through employees in such bases, spies or even hacking information systems that are connected the ones in the U.S. Acquisition of information and technology from such companies has well been used to either disable operations of such bases or setting up rival companies. It is worth noting that espionage from such bases is hard trace or quantify. This is because the jurisdiction of such states cannot be influenced or forced to take measures of such activities due to the nation’s sovereignty. Legal cases in such incidents are left pending for fear of bad international relations and investigations are hardly finished. Economic espionage in

Get Access