2016 ThyssenKrupp — industrial espionage; trade secrets exfiltration (Industrial Solutions / plant engineering)
Data compromised
Engineering, manufacturing, and trade-secret project data per ThyssenKrupp disclosures and mainstream summaries
Technical writeup
ThyssenKrupp AG publicly described a highly organized intrusion discovered by internal security in spring 2016, with activity traced to February 2016, aimed at industrial espionage against divisions including plant engineering / industrial solutions and related R&D-adjacent operations. Press quoting the company emphasized theft of sensitive project and trade-secret technical data from multiple regional sites while specified operational units (e.g., certain steel-control environments) were called out as outside disclosed impact scope. Headcounts of natural persons are not the primary metric for this incident class.
Root cause
Targeted intrusion / industrial espionage (company-attributed “professional” adversary; regional attribution in press)