Book Review: Nasheri, H. (2005). Economic Espionage and Industrial Spying. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. xvi pp., 270 pp

• Published date: 01 June 2008
• Author: David S. Wall
• Date: 01 June 2008
• DOI: 10.1177/1057567708319407
• Subject Matter: Articles

misconduct. Instead of coming from inadequate legislation, the problems in combating cybercrimes

arise from the jurisdiction-spanning global nature of the online environment and from the technical

intricacies involved in their investigation and prosecution.

A number of such common practical difficulties and obstacles in the investigation and prosecution

of cybercriminals are exemplified by Prosecuting Attorney Ivan Orton in the third chapter. Orton uses

three different scenarios of actual cases he investigated to demonstrate the many complications with

which the investigative process can be fraught. He advises the reader on how to avoid common pitfalls

during forensic analyses, particularly concerning the seizure, analysis, and usage of digital evidence.

In chapter four, Defense Attorneys Joseph Savage, Darlene Moreau, and Diana Laub address the

practical aspects of cybercrime legislation from the viewpoint of an attorney who is defending a sus-

pect accused of having committed a cybercrime. While the issues overlap between chapters three and

four, the complementing views taken in the two chapters create a more complete picture of the prac-

tical aspects of cybercrime laws. Together, chapters three and four provide the reader with a sound

understanding of the implications the current cybercrime legislation holds for practitioners.

Giving consideration to the aforementioned complications that arise from the global nature of the

Internet, the final chapter of the book takes a look beyond national borders at the development of inter-

national cybercrime laws and jurisprudence. Author Miriam F. Miquelon Weismann, professor at the

Southern New England School of Law and former U.S. attorney,examines the history of international

attempts to facilitate and harmonize global cybercrime definitions and enforcement efforts.

The in-depth examination of the current U.S. cybercrime legislation, and its practical implica-

tions, provided in the second edition of Cybercrime: The Investigation, Prosecution, and Defense of

a Computer-Related Crime renders the book an invaluable resource for prosecution and defense

attorneys, as well as researchers and students of computer criminal law alike. Researchers, in partic-

ular, will appreciate the extensive collection of footnotes that makes this book an excellent reference

guide. At the same time, the heavily footnoted format, combined with the book’s minute discussion

of legislative acts and the often used direct citations of long law passages, renders the book less

accessible for students and less suited as a textbook for the classroom.

Michael Bachmann

University of Central Florida

Nasheri, H. (2005). Economic Espionage and Industrial Spying. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge

University Press. xvi pp., 270 pp.

DOI: 10.1177/1057567708319407

Economic Espionage and Industrial Spying, as the title reveals, draws on a range of legal com-

mentary, cases, and news sources to analyze the theft of trade secrets. It focuses on the U.S. Economic

Espionage Act 1996 (EEA) that criminalized the theft of trade secrets in the United States. The book

considers the broader issues and contemporary events that contributed to the passing of the act, espe-

cially the increased potential for networked technologies to be used for economic espionage and

industrial spying and the emerging need for intellectual property right protections in law. The book

then considers the contradictions that exist because of the international dimensions of business and

commerce as well as the boundaries of espionage and economic crime. The later chapters evaluate the

act and explore the tensions that exist between openness and security of information.

Nasheri argues that the EEA is a useful illustration of how important protection against economic

espionage and industrial spying is to United States’ interests. The EEA was unprecedented in the

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