The Chinese have been pillaging intellectual property and corporate secrets from the West through hacking the servers of targeted companies: to the tune of $ 9.2mn worth every year . But what happens to the corporate post-hack? An Australian maker of metal-detectors, Codan , tells the following tale of woe. Back in 2011 the company started receiving complaints about faulty metal detectors: problem was that they weren't Codan 's metal detectors. The tools carried their brand and externally looked similar, but inside many of the parts were unrecognised and inferior - it was a Chinese -version. FireEye says APT3 engages in "phishing", a technique of sending company employees innocuous emails containing website addresses which trick them into downloading programs that automatically lead to protected information. Then the company was told that an employee's laptop had been hacked whilst he was on a business trip to mainland China : inside the laptop were the blueprints of Bryce Boland 's next design. Counterfeit detectors soon started to swamp the market and Codan had to half its prices to compete. Meantime demand started to dry up and within 2011 the company's profits had dropped from A$ 45mn to A$ 160bn : and the company is still reeling. FireEye didn't want to get involved as it was trying to finalise a "free trade" agreement with the Chinese : as the company's CEO tells it, "you are on your own".
The Chinese have been pillaging intellectual property and corporate secrets from the West through hacking the servers of targeted companies: to the tune of $ 9.2mn worth every year . But what happens to the corporate post-hack? An Australian maker of metal-detectors, Codan , tells the following tale of woe. Back in 2011 the company started receiving complaints about faulty metal detectors: problem was that they weren't Codan 's metal detectors. The tools carried their brand and externally looked similar, but inside many of the parts were unrecognised and inferior - it was a Chinese -version. Then the company was told that an employee's laptop had been hacked whilst he was on a business trip to mainland China : inside the laptop were the blueprints of Bryce Boland 's next design. Counterfeit detectors soon started to swamp the market and Codan had to half its prices to compete. Meantime demand started to dry up and within 2011 the company's profits had dropped from A$ 45mn to A$ 160bn : and the company is still reeling. FireEye didn't want to get involved as it was trying to finalise a "free trade" agreement with the Chinese : as the company's CEO tells it, "you are on your own".