FBI Warns Of Evolving Tactics In Trade Secret Theft And Economic Espionage

The FBI recently released a new video featuring Roman Rozhavsky, Assistant Director of the Bureau’s Counterintelligence and Espionage Division, highlighting the shifting landscape of foreign intelligence activity targeting US companies and government entities. Rozhavsky’s remarks underscore how technology—particularly artificial intelligence (AI)—has transformed the way foreign adversaries attempt to recruit insiders and steal valuable intellectual property. His comments also reinforce the importance of adopting measures to safeguard sensitive business information in a manner that effectively addresses the ever-evolving nature of this threat.

Rozhavsky explains that traditional "spy movie" tactics have largely been replaced by virtual recruitment methods. Foreign intelligence officers and their proxies now use AI‑generated personas and online consulting companies to approach US individuals under the guise of legitimate business opportunities. These actors may initially request innocuous tasks—such as drafting research papers or policy analyses—but then escalate to seeking classified data or proprietary company information. 

AI tools make these operations increasingly difficult to detect. Fraudulent companies and communications often appear credible and linguistically flawless, making it easier for employees in sensitive industries to unwittingly share confidential information with foreign agents. 

Beyond efforts to recruit employees to divulge information, Rozhavsky noted that some foreign actors have gone further—obtaining virtual employment with US companies to gain direct access to sensitive data and systems. These individuals often rely on US-based accomplices who provide computers or network access points to disguise the true location of the impersonating worker. These efforts commonly involve stealing the identities of US persons. 

Rozhavsky explained that foreign actors are increasingly targeting a diverse range of industries and sectors. Foreign actors frequently target private‑sector innovations such as manufacturing processes, source code, or research data to replicate US technology or undermine competitors. Rozhavsky also highlighted how these efforts have expanded beyond the industries and sectors most traditionally associated with economic espionage, citing threats ranging from the most advanced technological sectors to seemingly more traditional sectors like agriculture. This expansion reflects the reality that virtually all industries are now undergoing rapid technological transformation, driven by the accelerating adoption of advanced digital tools, including machine‑learning and AI‑enabled systems.

Rozhavsky’s comments underscore the recent focus on enforcement of trade secret theft, and the elevation of matters involving corporate espionage to the realm of national security threats. This recentering of trade theft and intellectual property exploitation as a national security priority has resulted not only in an uptick in law enforcement action targeting criminal intellectual property violations, but in coordinated action by economic regulators. Key among these has been the Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which recently announced the first-ever economic sanctions promulgated pursuant to the Protecting American Intellectual Property Act of 2022 (PAIPA). (For more information on these designations, see Steptoe's Client Alert of March 11, 2026). 

These coordinated efforts have resulted in a growing number of economic espionage prosecutions by the Department of Justice (DOJ), including the DOJ's first conviction for theft of confidential AI technology for the benefit of a foreign adversary earlier this year. Given that this recent increase in action arrives alongside the maturity of the Biden Administration's joint DOJ-Commerce Department "Disruptive Technology Strike Force" intended to "target illicit actors, strengthen supply chains and protect critical technological assets from being acquired or used by nation-state adversaries," we expect that these matters will remain a priority for the DOJ regardless of leadership changes. 

This heightened enforcement environment has coincided with a significant rise in civil trade secret litigation, as companies turn to the courts to protect proprietary technologies, data, and know‑how from misappropriation by former employees, competitors, and foreign‑linked actors. Recent trends show no signs of slowing, particularly as disputes increasingly involve advanced technologies and cross‑border conduct. (For additional discussion of these trends, see Steptoe's Step Into IP blog post, "Trade Secret Litigation Shows No Signs of Slowing").

Businesses can take a number of practical steps to ensure they are combating the growing threat of economic espionage, particularly as illicit actors leverage innovative technologies to infiltrate the US market.

• Reassess Trade Secret Protection Programs: Review how your company defines, labels, and safeguards trade secrets. Ensure appropriate technical controls (e.g., access restrictions, monitoring, encryption) and contractual protections are in place. Tailor programs to cover the evolving technological threats posed by leveraging AI and similar technologies. Companies may wish to engage experienced intellectual propertyand corporate compliance counsel to review and audit protection programs and identify opportunities to strengthen preventive measures.
• Educate the Workforce: Regularly train employees—especially those in R&D, engineering, information technology, and business development—on how to identify and report suspicious recruitment or consulting requests, and periodically reinforce employees’ ongoing confidentiality and information‑handling obligations. Ensure that these efforts cover employees, as well as contractors, including those located outside the United States.
• Monitor for Virtual Recruitment: Implement processes to detect unusual external inquiries for proprietary information or offers of paid “consulting” work. 
• Strengthen Incident Response: Establish clear internal escalation paths and external reporting procedures, including guidelines for when to engage outside counsel or law enforcement.
• Consider Affirmative Engagement With Law Enforcement: Rozhavsky states that the federal law enforcement is ready and willing to collaborate with the private sector to address the threat of economic espionage. By affirmatively engaging with federal law enforcement, businesses benefit from real time law enforcement assistance and demonstrate cooperation with the government's efforts.

Effectively navigating this environment often requires close coordination among preventive compliance measures, incident response, and, where necessary, parallel criminal and civil proceedings. Steptoe's practice routinely brings together intellectual property litigators and investigations, white‑collar, and compliance lawyers who collaborate on trade secret protection, investigations, and enforcement matters—reflecting the increasingly integrated nature of these risks.