Cyber security threats, especially those leading to trade secret and other intellectual property (IP) thefts, both domestically and internationally, cost US companies in excess of a trillion dollars each year. In addition to lost revenue, these threats/thefts often cause employment issues, damage to your company’s reputation, lost investment in research and development, and delays in production.

The FBI reports, “Our nation’s critical infrastructure, including both private and public sector networks are targeted by adversaries. American companies are targeted for trade secrets and other sensitive corporate data, and universities for their cutting-edge research and development. Cyber intrusions are becoming more commonplace, more dangerous, and more sophisticated.”

Has your company put in place a program to protect your innovations and technology? What are the reasonable steps your company should take to protect its IP and data assets from theft? Are you protecting your research, technical plans, prototypes, proprietary formulas, software source codes, manufacturing plans, and customer data? Learn about some of the obvious and not so obvious ways companies’ IP assets are lost.