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Intellectual Property Security: Don't Lose Your Head

Intellectual property isn't always easy to identify. It's even harder to protect. Here's how CSOs can work with others to protect their companies' future.

By Simone Kaplan

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"There will always be people out there looking for weaknesses to exploit so they can get your goodies," says Jeff Uslan, director of information protection and security at Sony Pictures Entertainment. Even with good software and constant auditing, any method by which your company stores or transmits content has the potential to be infiltrated. "If you don't encrypt your information, that's it," says Uslan.

Another way in is through social engineeringcalls from people posing as graduate students doing a research project or as ex-employees trying to track down a former boss. CSOs dub that kind of attack a pretext call, and even when employees know what's going on, they sometimes think they can handle it themselves. What they don't realize, says Mattice, is that they're dealing with trained intelligence professionals who use even tiny bits of information to construct a picture of what a company is doing.

The people on the other end of the hacks, social engineering penetrations and exploitations of employee knowledge are usually competitors or someone hired by competitors. Corporate espionage and competitive intelligence probes are the underground fraternities of the business world—knowledge of their existence is implicit, but no one likes to talk about them. They are, however, a big threat to the security of your company's intellectual property. If you and your employees aren't on guard, your rivals could walk away with everything from your marketing plans to your deepest trade secrets. (CSO will cover this topic in greater depth in our May issue.)

Of course, there are those who will give away IP assets on purpose. Disgruntled employees walk out the door, and despite having signed nondisclosure agreements, find their way to the competition or form their own companies using your trade secrets. It's important to understand what factors contributed to someone taking information elsewhere, and how you could keep it from happening again. "You can't prevent everything," Sony Pictures' Uslan says. "But you can try to make sure that people see the consequences of breaking the rules."

Lessons from the Field

At W.L. Gore, intellectual property protection is crucial, and employee education lies at the center of the company's efforts. The company makes a chemical polymer that, when applied to outdoor clothing, produces the revolutionary wind and waterproof product known as Gore-Tex that hikers and climbers treasure.

Because W.L. Gore's business is built on such intellectual property, Pontrelli has created IP awareness presentations for employees at each of the company's 45 locations. W.L. Gore has many competitors, all of whom would love to get their hands on the company's proprietary information. And it's not just one person's responsibility to protect IP, he reminds them, it's part of everyone's job. Each employee is held accountable for his actions.