IP Theft is on the Rise

Much has been made on the cost of identity theft on companies, and rightfully so. But what are the costs on a company if their intellectual property (IP) is stolen. In a study performed by Purdue’s Krannert School of Management (funded by McAfee, security software firm) in 2008 the lost or stolen intellectual property cost about $4.6 million per company.

Most companies will never report the theft of their intellectual property. If such information got out then you can imagine what the company’s stock or investor’s valuation would be worth.

There are many ways in which a company can be compromised: dishonest employees, hackers, corporate espionage, carelessness, dishonest cleaning crews, break-ins, and the list goes on. What every corporate executive must understand is that there are four points of vulnerabilities that have to secured:

• Building
• Employees
• PC’s
• Computer Network

Actually, many times a company does not even know they have been breached. For example, if an outsider uses a legitimate User Name and Password to access the network, that breach goes undetected. Since so many employees cannot remember all their passwords they write them down on notes by their computer. All it takes is one dishonest employee or contractor to find the note, copy it and sell it on the internet for the company to be exposed.

The report goes on to say that the problem and costs may be far greater than anyone expects. You don’t have to be a large international corporation to be a target. Small startup companies are very valuable.

So if you don’t want your designs to appear in Asia, Russia, Pakistan, South America, Eastern Europe or anywhere else in the world, security has to be a key component to your business plan. We are already seeing that banks and VC will not lend or invest if you don’t have sufficient security in place.