Stealing a jumbo-jet airplane sounds like a ridiculous movie, but it’s actually just one example of IP theft. It’s happening to tech giants like Twitter and Google, and consumer brands like Hershey. But it’s also happening to organizations built around security — like McAfee and even the CIA. In fact, a survey by Osterman Research found that seven in 10 organizations had experienced significant data or knowledge loss due to employees exfiltrating information.
The huge (and hidden) costs of insider IP theft
The risk of losing your “secret sauce” is obvious. But there’s a huge range of IP to protect: product roadmaps, strategic go-to-market plans, customer lists and other inside sales info, source code, or CAD files in the midst of development. These are all critical gears in a business’s revenue engine. Losing any one of them could stall that engine — delaying product launches, impacting service levels, impeding sales conversations. But it can also cause your business to lose its competitive advantages — or worse, see these advantages fall into the hands of a competitor.
Most IP exists as living, moving, evolving files — that’s why it’s such a challenge
One big problem with protecting IP is that these are the files your employees are working on every day. They need to be edited and shared — this is critical to enable the collaboration and innovation that fuel businesses’ success. It’s also no surprise that nearly three in four employees (72%) say they feel entitled to the work product they create, according to the Code42 Data Exposure Report.
And that’s how most IP theft happens: Authorized employees working within the realm of “normal” activity. That’s also why IP theft typically goes unnoticed until the damage starts showing up: A copycat product from a competitor. A call from regulators. Or reading your company’s name in the headlines. By then, it’s too late to take effective action to protect and reclaim the stolen IP. It’s much harder to take action once an employee has left the company. And it’s much, much harder to do anything once the IP is in the hands of a competitor.
Code42 Incydr helps you see and respond to IP threats — before it’s too late
The headlines make it clear that companies need a better approach to protect their IP from insider theft. The Code42 Incydr data risk detection and response solution tackles that challenge by focusing on giving security teams simplicity, signal and speed:
The solution here isn’t all that complex: Security teams need tools that make it simple to protect IP, trade secrets and other valuable data — not saddle them with never-ending data classification puzzles. They need a clear signal of risk — not a litany of false positives that push them into alert fatigue. And they need to be able to investigate and respond faster — so they can take action before the IP gets out in the world and the damage is done.