The lucrative world of cyber-espionage
Catherine J. Everett · Computer Fraud & Security · 2009
Information equals power — but it also equals money. In an increasingly networked world, e-espionage is becoming a high-value trade. Compared to bank robbing, stealing information is relatively low-risk, cost-effective and difficult to detect. The offenders are likely to be on another continent, making them hard to pursue and often nearly impossible to prosecute. And the organisations under attack often don't even know that they're victims. Catherine Everett looks at how the changing commercial environment, with emerging economic powerhouses like China, is making national borders irrelevant and — perhaps more worryingly — is blurring the distinction between criminal and state-sponsored activities. She points out that the problem involves not just the usual suspects of the Russian mafia and Chinese hackers, but western governments and big business. And regardless of who is behind it and where it comes from, cyber-espionage is unquestionably big business. Cyber-espionage is a lucrative game these days. Information equals power, but it also equals money, whether that involves making it or saving it.