Four reasons to start protecting your documents

Every company has documents that are secret, confidential, or not for public consumption. Unfortunately, most organizations treat all documents equally when it comes to storage and transmission. It is critical that companies protect their documents. Here are four scenarios where documents can result in the need for legal action internally or against external parties.

Leaks

There are several scenarios where leaks can compromise confidential information. Either someone “accidentally” sends documents to the wrong person, or a person who should not have access shares a document with the wrong person. The most obvious legal scenario is when someone intentionally leaks information to the public or press.

Hacks

Hackers are increasingly targeting small and medium businesses for information theft. Often, the hackers demand a ransom to destroy the data or remove encryption on existing data. You can only take legal action when you know the perpetrators, or you bring in the FBI.

Infringement

Often, when employees leave, they take unauthorized information with them. The problem is when they take this information to competitors. The case of Waymo v Uber is a perfect example of this same scenario. If Google had proper protections in place, they would have known in advance and sued before Levandovski went to Uber.

In all of the scenarios above, lackluster protection of corporate data can result in expensive investigation and litigation. Place proper protection and rules on your data, and save your company a lot of potential future legal trouble.