Industrial espionage is a growing problem in many business industries for keeping their intellectual property out of the hands of competitors. It is a threat to the existence of these businesses whose value depends on their research and development efforts to bring new products and services to their customers.

Erik Meyersson with his research colleagues was able to access the archives of STASI – the old East German Ministry of State security. During the research process they found a particular set of products that western democratic and capitalist countries especially United States were willing to keep out of the hands of communist countries. Erik Meyersson describes that this gave a rise in demand for industrial espionage and during his interview explains how industrial espionage was organised.

Listen to the full interview on BBC Radio here.