What is e-espionage?
'Espionage is obtaining valuable or confidential information by theft, stealth and other illegitimate means, and the
internet is now the most common route. These days, e-espionage or electronic espionage by malware is carried out by
organised syndicates who have broken into targets as diverse as the White House, Google,Data Protection Software vendor Kaspersky and the East Anglia University Climate Research Unit.
Estimates put the cost of e-espionage to US companies at around $300 billion a year, with proprietary information being
gathered by governments, local and international competitors, organizations, criminals, terrorists and individuals. Experts
in Europe estimate that espionage is costing German industry in excess of 50 billion Euros a year.
Mandiant,a specialist security firm working with Fortune 500 companies, says it has seen a dramatic change in information
security incidents. Superbly capable teams of attackers have successfully expanded their intrusions at government and
defence-related targets ... to researchers, manufacturers, law firms, and even non-profits. These attacks use custom malware
designed for
e-espionage and which standard security tools usually do not detect. That
is, the likelihood of undetected penetration by this type of attack is high.
Who are likely targets?
Even back in July 2010, ASIO Director David Irvine stated that corporate networks were as much a target for foreign cyber
sleuths seeking to steal Australias secrets as defence and government agencies. On the same day, then Defence Minister John
Faulkner added that, of more than 2400 incidents on networks considered to be medium to high risk in 2009, only 200 were
directly related to defence.
Its not just governments that are at risk of data theft by e-espionage. Victims now include researchers,
manufacturers, law firms and even non-profits so, if you hold information of value, you need to take the threat seriously.Data Protection & eEspionage. If you thought only governments and global corporations had to worry about
e-espionage, its time to think again.
Moving forward to 2011, ASIO has now created a unit to protect Australia's online networks: Known as the cyber espionage
branch,it was formed in the past nine months and is believed to be under the control of ASIO's counter-espionage and
interference division.
