This paper distinguishes forms and patterns of economic espionage in the business world, with attention to such espionage in Slovenia.
The dramatic expansion of technological development, especially in the field of information and communication technologies, has also created an expanded interest in and methods for obtaining and exploiting information and technologies from other companies in order to gain competitive advantage. In Slovenia, few, if any, cases of business espionage have been disclosed. Slovene companies have entered international markets, where they have had to deal with strong competition. Some have built their strength on their own intellectual capital and have created a solid image in the foreign market. The public knows almost nothing about possible cases of industrial espionage in Slovene companies, because the companies that are victims of espionage are not aware of it due to their low sensitivity or lack of security awareness and detection. Perhaps in other cases the victims do not want to divulge the espionage, since they believe it could harm their reputation. They may also believe that public prosecution would not be successful or would cause more problems than it resolves. A recent survey shows that Slovene companies are generally unaware of the possibilities offered by the adoption of intelligence strategies. A high percentage of companies perceive that their competitors have some data on their company. Such data, translated into the language of industrial and competitive intelligence, suggests that a few Slovene companies are "victims" of competitor's intelligence "attacks." 11 references