The difference between industrial spying and the gathering of competitive intelligence
Week 4 Homework Assignment
1. What is the difference between industrial spying and the gathering of competitive intelligence? Is
the use of competitive intelligence ethical or unethical? Why?
2. Some IT security personnel believe that their organizations should employ former computer
criminals to identify weaknesses in their organizations’ security defenses. Do you agree? Why or
why not?
Solution
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Different companies or organizations may have similar products and services though they
compete in the same market. Therefore, competition is an aspect that the various organizations
face, while carrying out their different activities, thus, they have different tactics to counter the
competition. Industrial spying or espionage can be described as a practice that is not legal which
involves investigating competitors so as to achieve an advantage in the business aspects
(Anulidakis & Kioupakis, 2016,p.125).
On the other hand, the gathering of competitive intelligence is described as an activity
that entails looking for information in a legal way that would help a person in making informed
decisions when in need of starting a business. It is evident that the main difference between the
two terms or activities is that one of them is legal while the other one is illegal, though the issue
is debatable. Competitive intelligence is an activity that can be described as being ethical in
some aspect, and on one end as being unethical. Competitive intelligence is seen as ethical on the
basis that the person gets the information about other industry or company while being
identified. On the other hand, competitive intelligence can be seen as being unethical when the
gathering of information entails secret information about a given company (Singh, 2011).
Different companies have various ways in which they get their employers. It is noted that,
some of the IT security personnel's believe that it is essential when their organizations employ
former computer criminals (Tipton & Nozaki, (2007). Former computer criminals are thought to
have an ability of identifying weaknesses in IT companies, for security defenses. At one end I
agree with the notion, as this former criminals understand the ways in which new attackers
would use to create security issues in an organization. However, on an ethical basis, I do not
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agree with this particular perception as the same criminals may use their knowledge to create
more security issues in the given organizations.
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References
Anulidakis, I. & Kioupakis. (2016). Industrial espionage and technical surveillance counter
measurers. Cham: Springer.
Singh, A. (2011). Competitive Intelligence: What's Unethical About It?. CNBC. Retrieved 22
February 2016, from http://www.cnbc.com/id/41989038
Tipton, H. & Nozaki, M. (2007). Information security management handbook. Boca Raton, FL:
Auerbach Publications.
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