Information Protection & Security

Keeping sensitive information confidential is an essential part of doing business today and the leaking of confidential information, whether intentional or accidental, can severely damage a company's reputation, competitiveness and profitability.

All companies share and distribute sensitive data both within their organisation and to external recipients such as partners, customers and suppliers. Much of this information is now transmitted in digital format and is extremely vulnerable to being compromised or leaked.

Why should you be concerned?

Research shows that intellectual property constitutes as much as 90% of a company's intangible assets, and when stored in a digital format, this information is highly portable and extremely vulnerable to attack. To prosper in this modern age of collaboration, and to survive in the Global economy, a company must share their precious intellectual assets with suppliers, customers and partners; but how safe is it?

A 2009 survey revealed that the average organisational cost of a data breach was £1.68m per incident and a US survey revealed that the average cost of a ‘research and development' leak is £0.27m. Whether it is accidental or malicious, there are numerous opportunities for data to leak from your business and it can originate from internal, third party and outside sources.

What are the Risks?

Traditional network security operates on a denial of access principal, but once digital information is removed from the safe haven of your corporate server, all security is lost. In business today, there are numerous situations where this can occur.

For example, authorised employees may be profligate in where they store copies of sensitive information, or external suppliers may be indiscriminate in who they pass confidential drawings to. Malicious attacks are also increasingly commonplace; where employees or third parties may deliberately acquire and pass on information for financial benefit or other favours.

Protect & Secure Your Business IP

Enterprise Rights Management (ERM) provides the perfect solution to the problem of protecting your sensitive or confidential information. It surpasses conventional security by continuously managing access rights and monitoring data usage even after a document has left the confines of your company's own systems. ERM protects and controls information "at rest", "on the move" and "in use".

ERM uses military level encryption to restrict access and ensures all users are identified and authorised. The access rights are physically separated from the document thus allowing the administration of user access from a central rights policy server that remains within the control of the document owner. This allows secure documents to roam outside of an organisation whilst the information owner can still control and revoke access from a centralised location at any time.

Manufacturing Business Technology Magazine Article on "Protecting Intellectual Property Across Global Supply Chains" - Click Here