Audio Transcript

Ms. Ballew: Economic espionage—misappropriating trade secrets to benefit foreign entities.

Mr. Lapp: “We see folks that have a need-to-know level of access to that information from private industry and decide that it’s that valuable to them to try and steal it.”

Ms. Ballew: And benefit from it in some way. Peter Lapp, chief of the FBI Counterintelligence Division’s Economic Espionage Unit says the second tier to that is theft of trade secrets…secrets which are defined by companies.

Mr. Lapp: “Basically, it’s information that they take reasonable steps to protect, and it has some kind of independent economic value to them.”

Ms. Ballew: The type of technology targeted for theft can vary.

Mr. Lapp: “If it’s profitable and it’s easy to take and it’s something that the individual knows how to recreate or commercialize.”

Ms. Ballew: Lapp recommends companies be more pro-active in their plans to protect information.

Mr. Lapp: “But at the same time, you’ve got to be looking at internally who’s looking at your information and why.”

Ms. Ballew: To help prevent the insider threat. I’m Denise Ballew of the Bureau and that’s what’s happening at the “FBI, This Week.”