Western orgs warned about mounting Russian industrial espionage

Western companies have been warned by experts to be vigilant for possible Russian industrial espionage efforts after Russia acknowledged lacking technological development as a result of mounting sanctions amid its ongoing war with Ukraine, reports The Record, a news site by cybersecurity firm Recorded Future. Russian President Vladimir Putin's pronouncements on the role of the country's Foreign Intelligence Service or SVR in fostering technological advancements in Russia should worry Western organizations, according to Keir Giles, a senior consulting fellow at Chatham Houses Russia and Eurasia Programme. "I think its another of those ones where weve forgotten just how busy the Russian intelligence services always were during Soviet times doing precisely this, trying to steal technological secrets from the West because they were unable to develop things themselves," said Giles. However, Gavin Wilde, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a former director for Russia at the U.S. National Security Council, said that Putin has not considered the "insurmountable barriers" to the technological self-sufficiency of Russia. "Moscow now has essentially two options: illicitly pilfer the componentry and know-how it needs from abroad or deepen its dependency on exploitative and problematic 'friends' like China and Iran," added Wilde.