B2B Hacking as a Service: How Intellectual Property Theft Became a Targeted Business Tool

[Professor]

Industrial espionage and intellectual property theft through hacking B2B accounts.​

Industrial espionage in 2024-2026 has evolved from the recruitment of agents to the systematic, automated hacking of B2B accounts, at the intersection of cybercrime and corporate raiding. This is no longer "espionage," but a highly effective model for stealing competitive advantages with clear clients, contractors, and distribution channels. The goal is not a public scandal, but the quiet extraction of value.

Attack Targets: What's Being Stealed Through B2B Accounts?​

1. Design and technical documentation (CAD files, patents, specifications): Access to corporate clouds (SharePoint, Confluence, GitLab) and PDM/PLM systems. Allows you to replicate the product, accelerate development, and identify weaknesses.
2. Supplier and customer databases, price lists, and contracts: Allows you to lure key partners, determine actual costs, and disrupt deals.
3. Management correspondence (email, corporate messengers): To understand the company's strategy, weaknesses, and upcoming negotiations.
4. Tender data and commercial proposals: To prepare a winning counteroffer or sabotage.
5. Access credentials for critical services (AWS, Azure, SaaS): To steal computing power, mine crypto, plant malware, or attack infrastructure.

Methodology: From Brute Force to Controlled Hacking​

Phase 1: Reconnaissance & Targeting

• Identifying the "soft underbelly": We look for companies with outdated software (vulnerabilities in VPNs, Citrix), weak passwords, and employees with public LinkedIn profiles (with the software they use listed).
• Finding entry points: The weakest link is often the accounts of sales, support, and marketing employees. They have broad access to data but less stringent security requirements.
• Contract Attack vs. Mass Mining: A group may specialize in a specific industry (automotive, pharmaceuticals), scanning hundreds of companies and then selling initial access to interested competitors or reselling the data on the black market.

Stage 2: Initial Access

• Phishing (Spear Phishing): An email "from a partner" with a malicious attachment (PDF with macros) or a link to a phishing page that copies a corporate portal (Office 365, Google Workspace).
• Credential Stuffing (Password Spraying): Using leaked passwords to hack corporate accounts if employees use the same passwords.
• Exploits of vulnerabilities in public services: Hacking outdated VPNs and RDP servers exposed to the network without a password.

Step 3: Persistence & Privilege Escalation

• Installing backdoors, RAT (Remote Access Trojan): To maintain access even after changing the password.
• Stealing session cookies or OAuth tokens to access cloud services without a password.
• Lateral Movement: From the account of an ordinary employee to the accounts of engineers, lawyers, and management.

Step 4: Data Exfiltration

• Slow and invisible: Data is downloaded in small portions, encrypted, through legitimate channels (HTTPS, cloud storage like Dropbox, Google Drive) to avoid triggering DLP systems.
• Using legitimate corporate tools: For example, the entire code base is silently downloaded through the corporate Git repository API.

Economy and Markets: Who's Behind the Attacks?​

1. Public-private partnerships (hostile states): Groups like APT41 (China) work both for the state (espionage) and for themselves (financial theft). For them, B2B hacking is a source of technology and revenue.
2. Cybercrime groups for hire (Hackers-for-Hire): Specialized teams that accept contracts from corporate raiders or competitors. They operate on an "Access-as-a-Service" principle, selling ready-made access to company networks.
3. Insiders: Disgruntled or bribed employees. They are often recruited after a preliminary hack and review of correspondence (to identify conflicts and financial problems).

Monetization channels:

• Direct sale of data on specialized darknet forums or through intermediaries.
• Blackmailing the victim company (Ransomware + Extortion): Threatening to publish stolen trade secrets unless a ransom is paid.
• Selling exclusive access to a specific competitor (often through multi-level intermediaries for conspiracy).

Why is this difficult to detect and prove?​

• Imitation of legitimate activity: The attacker acts as an authorized user.
• Long period of "silent" observation: They can only read data for months without performing any destructive actions.
• Exploiting Out-of-Range Territories: Attacks are carried out from jurisdictions that do not cooperate with the victim.
• Circumstantial evidence: It is difficult to prove in court that a specific competitor ordered the theft, and not simply "acquired" the data from a third party.

Security in 2026: A Paradigm Shift from Perimeter to Identity​

Old methods (firewalls) are ineffective. Modern protection is based on:

1. Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA): "Trust no one, verify always." Every request for data (even from an internal network) must be authenticated, authorized, and encrypted.
2. Active Privilege Management (PAM): Employees are granted access to data only for the duration of the task, not permanently. All actions of privileged accounts are recorded.
3. UEBA (User and Entity Behavior Analytics): AI systems analyze user behavior. If an engineer in the US suddenly downloads gigabytes of files to a server in Belarus at 3 a.m., it triggers a block and investigation.
4. File-Level Encryption: Even if your account is leaked, your data remains encrypted.
5. Strict control over third-party SaaS and cloud services: Leaks often occur through hacked accounts in Salesforce, HubSpot, and Jira.

Conclusion: B2B hacking is the new normal business risk​

Theft of intellectual property through account hacking is no longer a rarity. It's a routine, highly profitable operation in the global hybrid war for technological leadership.

For companies, this means that protecting trade secrets is no longer the IT department's responsibility, but a strategic initiative of the board of directors, alongside financial and reputational risks. Industrial espionage has become democratized: now, not only governments but also medium-sized businesses can hire a "cyber group" to attack a competitor.

In this new reality, your B2B accounts are safes containing your most valuable asset. And attackers are no longer lone thieves, but highly professional "penetration services" who study your habits, search for weak points, and have a specific client willing to pay for the contents of your safe. The battle is not for servers, but for the accounts of your employees, who have become the new bearers of the corporate crown.