Economic Espionage A Foreign Intelligence Threat To American Jobs And Homeland Security

The subcommittee is meeting today to hear testimony regarding economic espionage and its threat to American jobs and homeland security. Over the last 2 years, we have examined many threats to the U.S. homeland. However, today's hearing provides an opportunity, a unique opportunity, for Members on the subcommittee to examine an issue that affects both National security and American competitiveness and job security. This is an issue that touches small and medium-sized businesses in Congressional districts all across America. Foreign economic and industrial espionage against the United States represents a significant and growing threat to the Nation's prosperity, American jobs, and National security.

Historical and recent examples illustrate the threats to innovation, the various approaches to mitigating them, and how the evolution of the innovative process now requires rethinking how the United States can benefit from and preserve its cutting edge human capital.

Each business day, some 35,000 executives, scientists, consultants, and lawyers pass through the nation's airports to destinations across the globe. They carry, along with proprietary documents and computer files, the latest in personal electronic gear. However, carefully watching most of those travelers—beginning the moment they arrive at the airport and often sooner—are uncounted numbers of espionage operatives. These individuals work for foreign intelligence services and economic concerns and seek to separate international business travelers from their trade secrets. To succeed, they use many time-tested techniques to lure unsuspecting travelers into vulnerable or compromising positions. They also employ the latest electronic means to steal business information often at a distance from their prey. This is the 21st century, after all, and economic and industrial espionage have become multibillion-dollar enterprises, utilizing a wide array of the most sophisticated means to obtain proprietary information. Luke Bencie is a veteran of this struggle. He knows intimately the threats business travelers face and how to combat those threats. In Among Enemies: Counter-Espionage for the Business Traveler, Bencie provides everything you need to know to protect yourself and your company from attempted espionage.