How to Reform Counterintelligence Outreach to Industry

Summary

U.S. industry is increasingly independent of federal government direction in its creation of new knowledge and capabilities. Nonetheless, the outputs of industry support the United States’ ability to maintain elements of its national power. Consequently, industry is in the crosshairs of not only foreign competitors, but also of foreign intelligence services that seek to surreptitiously obtain valuable knowledge and other intellectual property. This is an unfair fight. It is further complicated by the fact that both adversaries and allies alike have directed their intelligence resources against U.S. industry.
Although the U.S. government has attempted to partner with the private sector on counterintelligence (CI) awareness and response, these efforts have been plagued by a limited concept of which industry sectors are at risk, inconsistency in programs, and redundancies across agencies. Moreover, the U.S. intelligence community is already being asked to do more with less.

It is time for a new approach to the important function of counterintelligence outreach to the commercial sector. Such an approach must focus more on recognizing and responding to indicators of the threat, less on turning to investigators once the damage has already been done. Counterintelligence—in the theoretical sense—means preventing an adversary’s intelligence services from acquiring an information advantage. While U.S. government agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Defense Security Service, the Department of Commerce, and the Department of Homeland Security make a valiant effort to disrupt criminal activities, they are only part of the solution. Missing from this approach is assistance to industries trying to navigate technically legal but unscrupulous activities such as China’s mercantilist approach to doing business—which can do long-term damage not just to U.S. companies, but also to U.S. strategic interests that are supported by the capabilities U.S. companies develop. The final necessary piece of a solution is enlisting the active participation of the private-sector entities at risk, since they are the first line of defense and best postured to identify anomalies.