Sticky Fingers: Managing the Global Risk of Economic Espionage

by Steven Fink

Written by internationally recognized crisis management expert Steven Fink, Sticky Fingers is the first practical guide that shows companies large and small, publicly traded or privately held, how to avoid huge financial losses from economic espionage, and what to do if a company believes it has been victimized. The FBI ranks economic espionage among the greatest threats to our national security since the end of the Cold War. It costs U.S. businesses more than $250 billion a year, and no company is immune from the risks. Readers will be able to intimately follow every step behind the scenes of the landmark Avery Dennison/Four Pillars spy case and learn from the vantage points of the spy, the victimized company, the FBI, and the Justice Department prosecutors – from first suspicions to ultimate jury verdict. Sticky Fingers also
* A list of the top countries that spy on U.S. businesses
* Why the biggest threat comes from within — and what to do about it
* Cybercrimes – from amateur hacking to professional netspionage
* How to formulate a crisis communications plan
* Dealing—or not dealing—with the FBI Woven throughout the book, the epic lessons from the Avery Dennison/Four Pillars case – the longest and largest economic espionage case in U.S. history, and the first ever to go to trial since the passage of the landmark Economic Espionage Act – are combined with insights of other companies that have been victimized, including Lucent Technologies, Kodak, the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, MasterCard, Gillette, Bristol-Myers Squibb, PPG Industries, and many others. Companies can fight back to reduce their risk, using the clear, pragmatic crisis management strategies outlined in this book.

368 pages, Hardcover

First published January 15, 2002

Reviews

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting look at the world of economic espionage, Fink explores this concept through the case study of Tenhong "Victor" Lee, a trusted researcher at Avery Dennison who spent 8 years smuggling out a plethora of trade secrets to a rival company in Taiwan. In addition to the in-depth look at how one person can cause a company so much damage, Fink also explores what a company should do to prevent such disasters from happening to it, as well as how to handle the ensuing crisis in the worst case scenario.

I thought Fink did a terrific job of motivating the importance of the problem of economic espionage, which I felt was key to making the story of the Avery Dennison case stick with the reader. Even though the case was, on the surface, somewhat complex, Fink gave the reader just enough detail to connect the dots without drowning them in technical jargon. If you work with or have any sort of intellectual property, this is definitely a must-read.