ONCIX Reports to Congress:
Foreign Economic and
Industrial Espionage
The threat to the United States from foreign economic collection and industrial espionage is appraised in these annual reports to Congress. Compiled by the ONCIX, these threat assessments represent significant contributions from the Counterintelligence Community.
This assessment is submitted in compliance with the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1995, Section 809(b), Public Law 103-359, as amended, which requires that the President biennially submit to Congress updated information on the threat to US industry from foreign economic collection and industrial espionage. This report updates the 14th Annual Report to Congress on Foreign Economic Collection and Industrial Espionage, 2008 and draws primarily on data from 2009-2011.
New Focus and Additional Resources Used for This Year's Report
Remarks by Director Bryant at the Nov. 3, 2011 Press Conference
This report differs from previous editions in three important ways. The first and most significant is the focus. This report gives special attention to foreign collectors' exploitation of cyberspace, while not excluding other established tactics and methods used in foreign economic collection and industrial espionage. This reflects the fact that nearly all business records, research results, and other sensitive economic or technology-related information now exist primarily in digital form. Cyberspace makes it possible for foreign collectors to gather enormous quantities of information quickly and with little risk, whether via remote exploitation of victims' computer networks, downloads of data to external media devices, or e-mail messages transmitting sensitive information.
The second difference from prior reports is that, in addition to researching the large body of intelligence reporting and analysis on economic espionage produced by the Intelligence Community, the Department of Defense (DoD), and other US Government agencies, the drafters of this report consulted new sources of government information.
Third, the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive (ONCIX) mobilized significant resources from outside the IC during the course of this study. This included outreach to the private sector and, in particular, sponsorship of a conference in November 2010 on cyber-enabled economic espionage at which 26 US Government agencies and 21 private-sector organizations were represented. ONCIX also contracted with outside experts to conduct studies of the academic literature on the cost of economic espionage and the role of the cyber "underground economy."

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2011 Report (2.7MB)
- 2008 Report (292KB)
- 2007 Report (305KB)
- 2005 Report (6.1MB)
- 2004 Report (1.8MB)
- 2003 Report (1.6MB)
- 2002 Report (197KB)
- 2001 Report (110KB)
- 2000 Report (235KB)
- 1999 Report (43KB)
- 1998 Report (127KB)
- 1997 Report (157KB)
- 1996 Report (83KB)
- 1995 Report (170KB)