Industrial Espionage Case Scenario
Scenario In the previous tutorial, you used Competitive Intelligence to obtain information on your competitor legally in order to find out what its developers and management may be up to. From analysing the results of the BI exercise, it was concluded that it is very likely that they (the competitor) has developed a new marketing method that would promote Online shopping. You know the legal and ethical limitations of competitive intelligence, but now you are contemplating using Industrial Espionage against your rival. Thinking may be unethical or immoral, turning thoughts into actions is illegal! 
Tasks
Based on the above scenario, you suspect that your competitor may be able to become the first and biggest Online seller in the health and beauty. This is worrying because the competitor can hold a significant portion of the market, and given that these method can remain operational for few years, it will be very difficult to recapture the lost market share.
The CEO has suggested/hinted in using Industrial espionage to obtain the following information.
1. At what stage is the competitor at?
2. How could they overcome other competitors.
3. Technical information with regards to the new selling product.
4. Sales and Marketing strategy with regards to Online shopping.
5. Pricing, discounts and warranty.
6. Any other useful information.
Role play your assigned position within the company and discuss how the company can use Industrial Espionage to find out the required information. You should make use of your knowledge gained from earlier tutorials, the provided company profile as well as further research to create a plan to spy your competitor. You may make any reasonable assumptions in your plan, but you must state these assumptions clearly in your written work.
• Know the major way in which industrial espionage can be conducted. Review what you have learnt in previous tutorials about the four functional areas of security. You should know by now, what are the threats and threat defence and how they relate to the four functional areas of security. You will need to think about the defences and how to exploit weaknesses in those defences.
• Consider the legal and ethical implications of using Industrial Espionage and the potential backlash if caught.
• Consider using some kind of risk management process when conducting industrial espionage. • There are tons of information on the internet on the topic of Industrial Espionage. It might be useful to do some research and review some of the information available.