Espionage Threats at Federal Laboratories: Balancing Scientific Cooperation While Protecting Critical Information

Publisher Marketing: The United States has long been the world leader in higher education, science and technology and a magnet for foreign-born scholars, scientists and engineers. Unfortunately, various actors have sought to exploit our openness to steal American ingenuity and innovation. Such thefts can enable nations to save themselves billions in research and development costs and make technological advances they would be unable to make on their own to gain a competitive industrial advantage or modernize their military and other national capabilities. According to the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive, foreign economic collection and industrial espionage is a significant and growing threat. Russia and China are the most aggressive and persistent perpetrators. While China's intrusions of U. S. computer networks has increased significantly in recent years, China's espionage continues to operate in the physical world as well. Chinese scientists and engineers permeate U. S. academic and industrial research sectors. While most are honest, hard-working individuals, here in the U. S. for legitimate reasons, recent economic espionage and trade-secret theft cases involving Chinese scientists and engineers show a more systemic campaign to gain American know-how.