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Business data is at risk in face of poor legal protection, warns FutureSoft
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01/07/2009
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Without reasonable safeguards in respect of trade secrets, UK law almost completely fails to protect manufacturing businesses from disgruntled employees. The warning comes from information security and connectivity solutions firm FutureSoft CEO Tim Farrell, who suggests that to be legally protected as a trade secret, information must be confidential and reasonable efforts must have been taken to ensure confidentiality.
If a company fails to take reasonable precautions, such as controlling file sharing or downloading to USB sticks, it can lose all redress against the discoverer of a secret, he says.
He also makes the point that, although a confidentiality agreement or restricted access can be definitive of a business secret, individuals are often not worth pursuing in Civil Courts, even for deliberate breach of a more limited duty of good faith – by which point the secret is out anyway.
"Making contractors and employees sign a confidentiality agreement is not enough," insists Farrell.
"You need basic endpoint security to restrict access to, and downloading of, sensitive data. You also potentially need the safeguards to show that you were protecting a trade secret, but the law does not adequately protect the holder of a trade secret.
"How many small businesses have the knowledge and resources to seek an injunction in the small hours of the morning? And how many rotten egg employees are worth pursuing for adequate compensation for the compromise of a major piece of competitive intelligence?
"It's much better to take a few sensible precautions to preclude a loss in the first place."
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Author
Brian Tinham
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