Renault claims to have fallen victim to a sophisticated case of industrial espionage. Last week, the carmaker, which is part owned by the French government, suspended three executives following an internal investigation into the suspected theft of secrets from its electric vehicle programme. Suspicion has fallen on Chinese companies, even though Beijing has vigorously protested its innocence.
There is nothing new about industrial espionage. As long as trade has existed, merchants have sought to gain an edge on their rivals by fair means and foul. And states have also often played a role. In the 1980s, France itself was involved in spying on high-technology companies in the US.
But the level of illicit activity seems to be rising. In 2009, top- secret data relating to the Pentagon’s Joint Strike Fighter project were stolen. And the same year, about 30 companies were targeted in a highly sophisticated cyber- attack originating in China, during which sensitive data was stolen and e-mail accounts were hacked.