Counterintelligence
Spies might seem like a throwback to earlier days of world wars and cold wars, but they are more common than ever—and they are targeting our nation’s most valuable secrets.
The FBI is the lead agency for exposing, preventing, and investigating intelligence activities in the U.S. Because much of today's spying is accomplished by data theft from computer networks, espionage is quickly becoming cyber-based.
The goals of the FBI's counterintelligence work are to:
- Protect the secrets of the U.S. Intelligence Community
- Protect the nation's critical assets, like our advanced technologies and sensitive information in the defense, intelligence, economic, financial, public health, and science and technology sectors
- Counter the activities of foreign spies
- Keep weapons of mass destruction from falling into the wrong hands
Economic espionage
Economic espionage costs the American economy hundreds of billions of dollars per year and puts our national security at risk. Foreign competitors deliberately target economic intelligence in advanced technologies and successful U.S. industries.
Historically, economic espionage has targeted defense-related and high-tech industries. But recent FBI cases have shown that no industry, large or small, is immune to the threat. Any company with a proprietary product, process, or idea can be a target. Any unprotected trade secret can be illegally stolen.
Asset forfeiture
Asset forfeiture is a powerful tool used by law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, against criminals and criminal organizations to deprive them of their property used illegally and their ill-gotten gains through seizure of these assets. It is also used to compensate victims of crime. Learn more about the FBI’s asset forfeiture program and to see forfeiture in action.
Outreach
In addition to its investigative work, the FBI works to raise public awareness and inform industry of the threats they face, through outreach activities.
In collaboration with the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, the FBI released a short film to educate anyone with a trade secret about how they can protect it. Based on an actual case, The Company Man: Protecting America’s Secrets illustrates how one U.S. company was targeted by foreign spies and how that company worked with the FBI to bring the perpetrators to justice.
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04.23.2025 Former CIA Official Pleads Guilty to Acting as a Foreign Agent and Mishandling Classified Materials
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02.05.2018 Economic Espionage
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04.21.2025 Albanian National Charged with Conspiring to Smuggle Illegal Aliens Into the United States
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04.17.2025 Brooklyn Resident Pleads Guilty to Attempting to Provide Material Support to ISIS
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10.23.2019 Protecting Every Voice
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04.16.2025 Former FAA Contractor Pleads Guilty to Illegally Acting as an Agent of the Iranian Government
Brochures
- Economic Espionage: Protecting America's Trade Secrets
- Elicitation Techniques
- The Insider Threat: An Introduction to Detecting and Deterring and Insider Spy
- Intellectual Property Protection: Safeguard Your Company's Trade Secrets, Proprietary Information, and Research
- Safety and Security for the Business Professional Traveling Abroad
- Visitors: Risks and Mitigations
- Internet Social Networking Risks
- The Key to U.S. Student Safety Overseas
- Safety and Security for U.S. Students Traveling Abroad
- Higher Education and National Security: The Targeting of Sensitive, Proprietary, and Classified Information on Campuses of Higher Education
- Best Practices in Supply Chain Risk Management for the U.S. Government