Economic Cyber-Espionage in the (Post)COVID-19 Era in Europe: Which (new) Challenges?

Abstract

The present paper offers a reflection on the (new) challenges to economic cyber-espionage that have emerged in the (post-)COVID-19 period in the European region. Economic cyber-espionage in Europe. More and more companies around the world and in Europe are becoming the target of cyberattacks, whose consequences have ranged from money losses and information theft to infrastructure destabilization. By 2021, experts estimate that cyberattacks will cost the world $6 trillion per year. Among the cyber challenges that the economic sector faces (e.g. phishing attacks, ransomware and cryptojacking), economic cyber-espionage is a crucial one, namely the attempt to acquire trade secrets held by companies by the State where they are based or third States or by other (non-governmental) companies (in the latter case, it is more common to talk about ‘corporate’ or ‘industrial’ cyber-espionage).