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Alpha Card Systems Video Surveillance: Surveillance Equipment and Corporate EspionageVideo Surveillance
Companies, businesses and organizations, in order to stay competitive, have always taken great measures to control trade secrets and confidential information that is vital to their success. However, businesses actively seek public information about their competitors in order to become more successful. This practice, called business intelligence, relies on humans and computers to harvest and analyze public data from competitors to help predict consumer desires or strategically plan future endeavors. Sometimes, however, attempts to gather information about business competitors cross the line from business intelligence to corporate espionage. Defined as the theft of intellectual property, corporate espionage has long been a threat to businesses whose success depends on proprietary information and trade secrets. Companies have attempted corporate espionage on their competitors in order to gain a competitive edge and corner their respective markets. For hundreds of years, the preferred and most effective method of corporate espionage was the human spy – sending in an employee or tradesman to another business under the guise as a new employee. These “employees” would work for their competitors until they could uncover the desired information (say, a formula for a scent, recipe for a popular dish or technical process), or the information was shared with them. The employee would then leave the business suddenly and report the information to their original company. Companies and governments also committed corporate espionage by using other surveillance products like spying and interception. The advent of technology has recently made electronic corporate espionage a real threat. Companies may use covert surveillance equipment like malicious or spying software to infiltrate corporate networks in order to receive intellectual property integral to their competitors. Hackers crack into corporate networks and retrieve the information directly, or install hidden software which can monitor essential information and send changes directly to competitors via e-mail or other electronic transmission. These programs, known commonly as “spyware” or “malware” are portmanteaus of “spy software” and “malicious software” respectively, and are intended to either spy or cause harms to the systems where they’re installed. This kind of corporate sabotage can be difficult to detect, yet can cause irreparable damage to both information systems and a company’s reputation. The wide availability of advanced personal technology has also made businesses adopt new technologies to keep their information safe. Personal digital cameras and camcorders, especially on cell phones, can be easily turned into covert surveillance equipment, and have made photography of confidential information and processes a threat. The proliferation of “bug” software, which can covertly record conversations, has also been perceived as a major threat, especially during important meetings and conferences with business leaders. In an effort to reduce corporate espionage, businesses employ many methods to keep their secrets safe from spying surveillance equipment. Often when hiring new employees, companies require the signing of a privacy agreement, a legally binding document that holds the employee accountable for the release of any trade secrets or proprietary information. Legal repercussions for breaking a privacy agreement may vary, but most often carry financial consequences that are comparable to the value of the information compromised. This value may be minor, or may go into the tens of millions of dollars. Businesses also use a wide variety of electronic surveillance equipment to monitor their corporate networks, employee email, and employee activities on the internet and network. E-mail encryption is another popular method of corporate security. Encryption ensures that messages cannot be intercepted and read when they are moving from server to server during the delivery process. Monitoring e-mails and network use for suspicious external activity allows companies to ensure that their information is staying where it belongs. Policies in regards to employee camera and personal cell phone use have also been implemented in many businesses where sensitive information is prominently displayed. Like privacy agreements, employees can be found financially responsible for the dissemination of any trade secrets or intellectual property. CCTV and access control systems are also effective ways of making sure that only appropriate personnel have access to sensitive information, and identifying any responsible parties in the event that information is compromised. Wary CEOs and other ranking business leaders have also begun to carry “bug detectors” and other surveillance equipment that will discreetly allow them to monitor their environments to be sure that they are not being covertly monitored. Proactive company policy, comprehensive security systems, and the implementation of surveillance equipment have been shown to be the most effective deterrents of corporate sabotage in an age where information can be easily accessed. |
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