Casey Fleming, chairman and CEO of Black OPS Partners, visited CERAWeek by IHS Markit last month with a message warning companies to be proactive. A new world of rivalries sees several adversaries, including Russia and China, employing people to steal data and innovation from the U.S. energy sector, says Fleming.

“The FBI director came out recently and said China is the single most significant threat to the long-term security of the United States,” he told Hart Energy. “And so, what this means is that bleeds down from the government level to every company and to every family as well.”