From: Mouse <mouse at Rodents-Montreal.ORG> This is a big part of my world these days. My wildly subjective, overly general observations: 1) When a big fish is caught, it's usually an "I took a bunch of doco I shouldn't have to my next job" situation. I've discussed more nefarious high-level mole scenarios with the FBI numerous times. It happens, but it's not apparently that common. 2) When a little fish is caught, it's usually some variation on "I'll teach them". And as Mouse notes, effort is usually made not to publicize the event unless there's a regulatory driver that requires it. That said, there's a *huge* amount of little fish "espionage" that flies under the radar. Things like client lists, marketing plans and confidential designs quietly walk out the door all the time and are rarely noticed. With these sorts of things, it's fiendishly difficult to assess the impact on the victims business. 3) No one is particularly good at covering their tracks (including people who in theory know how to do it). Unfortunately, the tools to proactively spot data exfiltration are rarely implemented and even more rarely implemented well. BTW...that's more an function of how difficult the problem is rather than an indictment of the practitioners. KJ