ABSTRACT
Information regarding the state of critical industries, technologies, and future investments of other countries are among the most prized by intelligence services and their policymaking consumers. The term “economic intelligence” refers to policy or commercially relevant economic information, including technological data, financial, proprietary commercial, and government information, whose acquisition by foreign interests, either directly or indirectly, would assist the relative productivity or competitive position of the economy of the collecting organization’s country. Economic intelligence can be an important element in obtaining economic security for a nation. The vast majority of economic intelligence is legally gathered from open sources, involving no clandestine, coercive, or deceptive methods.1
