Scope Note

This report is submitted in compliance with the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015, Section 1637, which requires that the President annually submit to Congress a report on foreign economic espionage and industrial espionage in cyberspace during the 12-month period preceding the submission of the report.

Definitions of Key Terms

For the purpose of this report, key terms were defined according to definitions provided in Section 1637 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015.

Economic or Industrial Espionage means (a) stealing a trade secret or proprietary information or appropriating, taking, carrying away, or concealing, or by fraud, artifice, or deception obtaining, a trade secret or proprietary information without the authorization of the owner of the trade secret or proprietary information; (b) copying, duplicating, downloading, uploading, destroying, transmitting, delivering, sending, communicating, or conveying a trade secret or proprietary information without the authorization of the owner of the trade secret or proprietary information; or (c) knowingly receiving, buying, or possessing a trade secret or proprietary information that has been stolen or appropriated, obtained, or converted without the authorization of the owner of the trade secret or proprietary information.

Cyberspace means (a) the interdependent network of information technology infrastructures; and (b) includes the Internet, telecommunications networks, computer systems, and embedded processors and controllers.

Contributors

The National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) compiled this report, with close support from the Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center (CTIIC), and with input and coordination from many U.S. Government organizations, including the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Defense Cyber Crime Center (DC3), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), Defense Security Service (DSS), Department of Energy (DoE), Department of Defense (DoD), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department of State (DoS), Department of Treasury (Treasury), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force (NCIJTF), National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), National Security Agency (NSA), and Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).