Undoubtedly businesses need to guard their end products against counterfeiting to protect their profits, their brands, their customers, and the financial health of their businesses. But fighting counterfeits cannot be fully effective without guarding supply sources - the materials and components used to manufacture the end products.
Driven in part by the global financial crisis, foreign intelligence services, corporations and computer hackers have stepped up efforts to steal technology and trade secrets from American companies, the FBI's top spy hunter told Congress.
Theft of trade secrets costs jobs and the global economy billions of dollars a year, according to a report released by the Center for Responsible Enterprise and Trade (CREATe.org) - a Washington-based non-profit industry group focused on responsible business practices.