the Golden Age of CIA agents
destabilizing democracies may be over
but there is a new more lucrative Cold
War playing out in companies all over
the world the FBI estimates that
corporate Espionage costs America as
much as $600 billion every year if you
work with sensitive information in a
large company there is a high chance you
have interacted with a corporate spy
without even knowing it this is as big
of a case as we've had in 20 years there
is a Chinese spy who's trying to obtain
secret technology a story that shows how
millions of American jobs now and in the
future are on the line I think every
major American corporation in any of
these fields needs to assume that they
are a Target to be either replaced or
guned corporate spies come in three
varieties each working in progressively
darker legal gray areas these people can
earn millions of dollars from their work
on top of the money they earn from
working their day job but what the [ __ ]
do these people actually do and if you
have flexible morals how do you get a
job as the James Bond of industrial
patents and processes the most common
type of corporate spy is one that never
crosses the line into illegality market
research firms work as technically
legitimate Consultants all over the
world selling information to Market
competitors and investors and like any
other Consultants they get paid on
billable hours analysts at these
companies will secure a contract and
then prepare a report that is delivered
to their client as a PowerPoint
presentation or PDF alongside any raw
data they were able to collect the most
effective tool for collecting sensitive
information is by just asking for it if
you become this kind of of corporate spy
one tactic you can use is to act as a
fake customer to talk to a Salesman
about a Target company's products what
their specs are what their pricing is
learn the sales techniques they use the
conditions of their contracts and
anything they lie about which could be
used against the company later in the
process or in courts if the companies
operate in a businessto business Market
you will need to set up a convincing
fake business to act as potential
customers for the Target company
services depending on the budget your
client gives you to conduct your
research you may even buy the company's
products to test its strengths and
weaknesses is one of your biggest
clients will be the Auto industry they
pay unaffiliated thirdparty research
companies to buy a competitor's new
model off the lot and tear it down to
learn about the materials manufacturing
methods and areas where the competitor
has cut Corners another great source of
information you can access without
breaking any laws are company employees
by using networking events and sites
like LinkedIn you can pose as a
recruiter and ask them questions about
what they do in their current job why
they want to leave the company and what
they think their employer could be doing
better these are all normal question in
a job interview that can expose
weaknesses in a competitor's operations
another legitimate way to get
information is to buy shares in a
company if they are publicly listed and
attend shareholder meetings where you
can work your way into private
conversations with company Executives
major shareholders and directors once
you have collected your Intel you put it
into a secure data room hand it over to
the company that hired you give a
presentation on your finding collect
your fee and move on to your next job
the company can use this information to
make better trades if they are in an
investment fund or bring a more
competitive product to Market if they
are an industry rival insiders working
in this field have reported that the
hardest part of this job was not the
clandestine operations but finding
clients investigators had to Market
their services but they couldn't do it
too well or their potential targets
would learn who they are and what they
are up to investigative intelligence
gathering like this is legal you can
find companies that will do this work by
Googling competitive intelligence
Consultants a lot of this work just
makes businesses more competitive and it
helps with price Discovery and
securities markets Hindenberg research
is an investment company that blew the
whistle on major alleged corporate
frauds like nickola Motors cash app and
the adani group their investment
strategy is to conduct research like
this and then short sell companies that
they find compromising information on
before releasing that information to the
public they are not a hero to people
already invested in the companies they
target but they do put an end to these
frauds before they can attract more
victims so they are doing a good thing
but maybe you aren't satisfied being a
glorified corporate consultant well
don't worry corporate Espionage gets a
lot worse and if you don't care about
things like the law you can do a lot
more damage and make yourself very rich
so it's time to learn how money Works to
find out how Corporate Espionage is
actually done this week's lesson was
sponsored by incognate while corporate
Espionage may be an accepted part of the
business world what's not acceptable is
when the target is you little do you
know there's a good chance your personal
information is being Bartered online
without your approval strikingly both
the number and scope of data breaches
worldwide are rising faster than ever
according to the 2022 annual data breach
report by the identity theft Resource
Center the number of victims has gone up
nearly 41.5% from 2021 on the bright
side you do have the legal right to
request the deletion of your personal
data from data Brokers the catch doing
it yourself could be a yearlong Endeavor
when data Brokers hold on to your
personal details they inadvertently put
you at risk a single security Bridge
could compromise your privacy that's
where incog comes in acting as your
personal liaison incog negotiates with
data Brokers to have your information
removed handling any push back they
might offer the procedure is
refreshingly uncomplicated just sign up
specify whose data should be deleted
give incog the green light to represent
you and they'll reach out to data
Brokers to get your information removed
it really is that easy delegate the
responsibility of protecting your
privacy to incognate and breathe easier
knowing your personal data isn't up for
grabs on the internet sign up for incog
at
code money with this link will get 60%
off in
COG if you want to become the second
type of corporate spy you're going to
need to take a much more Hands-On
approach to collecting corporate
intelligence by getting a job in the
company your other company wants to
Target on the inside you will have much
greater access to trade secrets but now
selling them will open you up to civil
suits for breach of employment contracts
or even criminal prosecution under the
Espionage Act the Department of Justice
can pursue cases of corporate Espionage
just the same as traditional National
Espionage so this is a high-risk High
reward game the company that employs
corporate spies is also at risk of
getting sued or F so in many cases they
try to hide their involvement behind
private contractors hiring private
contractors according to the FBI the
most common perpetrators of industrial
Espionage are foreign companies that
don't operate in America because
bringing legal action against them is
difficult even if they can be connected
to the crime the same report stated that
the most common targets of this type of
spying are companies in Hightech Fields
like software development biotech
Aerospace Telecom Transportation energy
Material Science and codings one of the
most high-profile cases of corporate
Espionage involved a senior Coca-Cola
executive that used their position to
learn industrial secrets about the
company's chemical suppliers her
employer allegedly a company with deep
connections to the Chinese government
paid millions of dollars in Grants to a
business she was a partner of back in
China the industrial secret that was
worth taking such a big risk to get was
a BPA chemical cating that is coded Ed
on the inside of aluminum cans to
prevent corrosion BPA is harmful when
ingested but only a few companies had
figured out how to make a resistant
cating without the presence of this
chemical while working as a principal
engineer for Global Research at
Coca-Cola from 2012 to August of 2017
Yushi oong was one of only a few
employees who had access to trade
secrets covering BPA free codings
belonging to axon Noble bsaf Dow
Chemical PPG toyam Sherwin Williams and
Eastman Chemical at used trial chemical
en coding companies Representatives
testified that developing these BPA free
Alternatives was a very expensive and
timeconsuming process estimating that
the information you stole had cost
nearly $120 million to develop because
of the evidence of foreign engagement
and the degree of financial damage
inflicted to the victims of this case
the FBI and the justice department
pursued this case with all of their
resources but the department warned that
the theft of Trade Secrets can be hard
to detect and harder to prosecute when
the rewards are this great the risk is
worth taking and the responsibility
rests mainly with the companies
themselves to keep their secret secure
and this can be a great opportunity for
your career even if you don't want to
become a criminal getting secret or top
secret clearance is required in certain
rules in the military or defense
Contracting these clearances require
extensive background checks to prevent
real spies from learning National
secrets and that makes them very
valuable in the private sector companies
don't have the same resources to run
background checks but if you have a top
secret clearance then you are a safer
candidate to handle industrial Secret
according to the clearance jobs
compensation survey full-time employees
with a secret clearance earn
$1,867 more on average than people
without it making it more valuable than
some college degrees if you still want
the even more lucrative rewards On the
Dark Side of becoming a corporate spy
then you should know that it's getting
harder unless you have the ability to
flee back to a country that won't
extradite like a lot of corporate spies
do it's better to stay on the right side
of the law companies are waking up to
the risk of corporate Espionage and
precautions like this mean getting a man
on the inside is becoming more difficult
an easier strategy more companies are
using to get their hands on valuable
corporate Secrets is to approach
existing employees of Target companies
and gauge their willingness to divulge
sensitive information through fake job
interviews or professional networking it
sounds like something out of a Cheesy
Spy book but it happens all the time and
that's the third type of corporate
Espionage which is even more direct than
getting a man on the inside in The Last
5 Years law enforcement agencies around
the world have reported a sharp rise in
brazen intelligence gathering attempts
traced back to Chinese companies
investigative journalist at Bloomberg
released an article in June reporting on
alleged Espionage carried out by the
technology company Huawei the Chinese
company was bidding on a contract in
Denmark to build a 5G Network for the
Danish telecommunications company TDC
its rival for the contract was the
Swedish firm Ericson corporate contracts
normally go to the lowest qualified
bidder so the companies want to present
an offer that is lower than their
competition but not too low that it
reduces their profits according to the
Bloomberg report Court Ericson presented
an offer to build the network for the
equivalent of $200 million which was
lower than the proposal from Huawei
meaning that the Chinese firm was going
to lose this lucrative deal at the last
minute wuwei presented an adjustment to
their bid that slightly undercut
Ericson's prompting suspicions at TDC
that they had inside knowledge the
Danish firm hired a Counter Intelligence
service that found that their boardroom
had been bugged and one of their
directors was being paid off to pass
along information regarding the bid
during their investigation they were
followed by drones and failed by
unidentified people around the city
eventually the head of Huawei in Denmark
had to flee to China to avoid arrest one
of the most lucrative jobs in this field
that has the small perk of not making
you a criminal is The Counter
Intelligence services that more
companies are starting to invest in by
building internal teams or hiring
outside Consultants like the ones
featured in this report I will leave a
link to the full story below it's worth
the read but a $200 million contract is
not even that big so this story is one
of the few that you will actually hear
about among hundreds that will go
undiscover and unpunished every year
today the largest threat is Chinese
companies but one of the largest private
companies in America got it start by
selling industrial secrets to the Nazis
and the Soviet Union go and watch my new
video over on how history Works to find
out how they got away with it and how
they used the billions that they made to
shape American politics for the better
part of the century if you want to watch
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