The Biggest Threats to a Company’s Intellectual Property

In this digital day and age, business owners have to worry about protecting their company’s intellectual property from would-be thieves and hackers. While it may not be the easiest thing to prevent, cloud services can ensure your information stays safe.

Threats from the Internet

The first sort of threat to intellectual property comes from the internet. Many organizations with a website or an online presence tend to share information, ideas, or content created by them to showcase their work. This can include things as simple as pictures taken by the organization to important documents and agreements.

Companies can protect themselves from this by using watermarks and notices to warn individuals about illegally using or distributing these files or photos. However, that only really stops law-abiding citizens. To properly prevent online theft, using encrypted data or requiring authorization is important

External Threats

The previous threat may happen accidentally or through individuals unaware that distributing certain files would be intellectual property theft. This threat refers to hackers or competing companies that may try and steal your information for the express purpose of stagnating your organization’s growth.

Your organization’s trade secrets and processes that give them an edge may be hacked and stolen. Protecting your information and intellectual property from hackers can require more encryption, safer firewalls, and anti-virus and anti-malware software to deny them any unauthorized access.