Competitive intelligence: Preparing for the information war

Abstract

As information technology pervades more and more aspects of social and commercial life, businesses become increasingly vulnerable to coordinated strategic information-related actions. Concern has been voiced over systems security. However, this represents only a part of the potential threat faced by commercial organizations since they are increasingly facing more sophisticated competitive intelligence efforts. Various national security establishments throughout the world appear to be ahead of their commercial counterparts in recognizing the value of coordinated actions taken to achieve information superiority over their adversaries. National defense strategists have termed this “Information Operations,” (IO) and have recognized its importance as an offensive tool as well the need to defend the state against its use by adversaries. This article argues that given the vagaries of public policy and the resulting political constraints on government actions, the true domain of “Information Operations” is in the commercial arena. Therefore, it is vital for businesses to understand this emerging threat, and to devise strategies to respond to it.