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War by Other Means: Economic Espionage in America Paperback – March 17, 1999
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"The best book yet on the threat to American business posed by industrial spies. . . . Historians may well turn to Fialka's book for a quick study."―John Mintz, Washington Post
In this action-filled journey through tomorrow's headlines, award-winning journalist John Fialka reveals a secret war that jeopardizes the economic security of the United States and the livelihood of millions of Americans. The battlefield is now economic rather than ideological, but espionage in the 1990s springs directly from the ruins of the Cold War spy regimes. Newly configured, the covert operations of America's enemies-and friends-threaten to hollow out the U.S. economy and siphon away the jobs and technologies we need to remain competitive in the twenty-first century.From Russia's brazen shopping tours for U.S. secrets to the subtle art of technology "tunneling" by the Japanese, this book illuminates a loss that is widely felt, but not often seen or understood. Fialka's incisive reporting and trenchant analysis expose an attack on the American economy so deadly as to constitute a time-lapse Pearl Harbor; his book outlines the hard choices we must make if we are to survive.
- Print length258 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherW. W. Norton & Company
- Publication dateMarch 17, 1999
- Dimensions5.6 x 0.8 x 8.3 inches
- ISBN-100393318214
- ISBN-13978-0393318210
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Product details
- Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company (March 17, 1999)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 258 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0393318214
- ISBN-13 : 978-0393318210
- Item Weight : 10.4 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.6 x 0.8 x 8.3 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,921,812 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #943 in Government & Business
- #1,755 in Business Ethics (Books)
- #1,827 in International Economics (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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- Reviewed in the United States on November 23, 2015When I bought this book, I feared that it would be outdated like a lot of other information security type books. It scares me to say, but reading this nearly a decade and a half after its initial release, this book sounds like it was written yesterday. Specific to economic espionage and written in a time before 9/11 and ISIS etc... bring in these now "every day part of life" challenges on top of economic competition there are so many calls for a culture change that seem to fall on a population of deaf ears. John Fialka is a masterful storyteller and everyone can learn something from this book.
- Reviewed in the United States on April 11, 2011This is an eye opener that is hard to put down. Many of the stories may sound familiar from news reports but you never heard the details that you see in this book. You will wonder why we don't protect our secrets better and why we don't take a harder stand on who comes into and leave this country. We are attacked every day and secrets are walking out of the US by the bucket fulls. This is a very interesting read. I highly recommend this to anyone concerned about protecting industrial and military secrets.
- Reviewed in the United States on October 11, 1997After showing that economic espionage is an age-old problem, Fialka quickly propels us into 1997, showing economic espionage occurring on a grand scale. The book is replete with examples and categorizes the major styles of this business. These are comprised of 1) those countries like China, Taiwan, and South Korea who target present and former nationals working for U.S. companies and research institutions, 2) classic Cold War recruitment methods which Russia, Israel, and Germany use to varying levels, and 3) the economic intelligence gatherers who prey on accessing company proprietary documents and data, the most successful of which is Japan. I very much agree with Fialka's assertion that the NSA, CIA, and FBI have hitherto shown they are not capable of dealing with this issue and, in my longer review (see [...] I discuss some of the reasons why. This book is an exceptional piece of work. Very rare indeed is the time when I find myself underlining, highlighting, and writing comments in the leaf.
- Reviewed in the United States on April 1, 2001Since first popularized by Winn Schwartau, the concept of Information Warfare has tantalized and titillated. It is a fascinating idea that the wars of an information society would be fought on a digital playing field. Certainly the practice of economic espionage is not new. Reduced political tensions worldwide means that cold warriors need something to do for a living, so today, it appears that resources that were formerly applied to defense-related targets are now being redeployed against American corporations.
Hitting so close to home, and being such a morbidly fascinating subject, it has tended to attract a lot of crank authors with populist approaches. While Fialka doesn't really pull his punches, his approach is much more even-handed than many writers. This well-researched and competently written book stands well above the junk being currently produced in this subject area.
Although this text is now over four years old, it is still relatively current. For example, one who has read this book could not have been surprised at the amount of Federal attention paid to a nuclear physicist of Chinese extraction with strong ties to his native land, which has a long-standing pattern not only of economic espionage, but also of using and abusing non-professional spies. The author also gives convincing evidence to support the consistent rumors that the French have a ongoing tradition of government-sponsored economic warfare against their 'allied' partners. (As someone who has benefited from the character-building experience of a long-term relationship with a Peugeot, I remain convinced that although the French undoubtedly engage in economic espionage, Gallic pride prevents them from actually applying anything that they learn.)
This is an excellent text for helping build a mental picture of one particular class of Information Security threat. Those involved in Infosec topics will also find value in the chapters "Virtual Justice," which explains why corporations are so reluctant to report incidents of espionage, and "Surviving" which describes the lack of attention that corporations are willing to pay to security issues. As someone who has been involved in the field for over ten years, I can attest that this attitude is pervasive, and that security failures do occur. But without a greater willingness to report incidents to the authorities, the true statistics will never be known.
Given that virtually all large corporations are highly-vulnerable to attack, and given the author's supportable contention that both motivated and resourceful adversaries exist, it seems imprudent to write this book off as mere scare mongering. Since the writing of this book, the problem has only worsened.
- Reviewed in the United States on December 4, 1997I think this book needs to be read by every business owner in America. It contains worrysome information on how overseas people are stealing and rapeing technology and trade secrets of American Businesses and what can be done about it.
- Reviewed in the United States on January 16, 2002I read this book when it first came out and have had some time to consider the viewpoints espoused. I believe the dissimenation of information and know how is inevitable, albeit this author does point out examples of unmitigated stealing of ideas, intellectual properties, etc. from U.S.-based businesses that should be curtailed.
In my view, the leaky bucket theory of developing technology and know-how described in the book does not give enough consideration to the rate of innovation in the U.S. Instead, a somewhat paranoid view of losing all the goodies to the bad guys comes across.
The people and money behind the innovation seem to be the real keys, not the specifics of any implementation. Most of the examples of copy cats or rip-offs the author uses to illustrate his point are technologies that have lived their life cycle and near zero margins anyway. Although the margins might have been diminished in a less timely fashion had better controls been in place. Innovation moves on to the next better thing with higher margins. Its natural -- get over it.
- Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 1997A great read for anyone. Gives a glimpse of what's going on in this country. Highlights a problem that is taken seriously by some federal agencies, ignored by some politicians. You won't see this kind of stuff on the news.