conference paper
Intelligence on competitors and ethical challenges of business information operations
Abstract
In this paper we discuss the changing nature of monitoring and analysing information on competitors. Such exercise is nowadays performed at a relative ease. Indeed, the Internet and other large online proprietary business directories facilitate acquisition of business-related, or even technical, information for a particular organisation. It may also have potential implications on the competitiveness of an organisation, or lead to compromise of information assets, as vulnerabilities may be uncovered, publicised and potentially exploited through such exploratory operations of competitors. In the light of the importance of information security and many publicised incidents of corporate espionage, organisations are called to align competitive intelligence and information security within frameworks that emerge from the arena of Information Operations (IO). Secrecy and deception can be strategic business tools in an electronic business environment, however their use in an on-line world arises many issues. In this work, we firstly review the process of competitor intelligence and map it across the state-of-art information security and counter-intelligence measures. We afterwards try to expose the shaping of competitive intelligence as a business IO element and discuss on the implications and the challenging ethical issues that such a metamorphosis introduces, through practices such as perception management and vulnerability exploitation.
Author keywords
business information warfare, competitive intelligence, ethics