ABSTRACT
The Attorney General of the United States defined economic espionage as “the unlawful or clandestine targeting or acquisition of sensitive financial, trade, or economic policy information; proprietary economic information; or critical technologies.” Note that this definition excludes the collection of open and legally available information that makes up the majority of economic collection. This means that aggressive intelligence collection that is entirely open and legal may harm U.S. companies but is not considered espionage, economic or otherwise. The FBI has extended this definition to include the unlawful or clandestine targeting or influencing of sensitive economic policy decisions.
