In part 1 of this series, I looked at risks associated with loss of trade secrets; part 2 highlighted trade secret laws, including the recent DTSA Federal law (Defense of Trade Secrets 2016). In this post, I will look at the root causes of several high profile breaches. These are different from the usual reported PII breaches in that a higher percentage are caused by someone known to the victim. This could be an “insider” or business partner, or contractor. The definition of “insider” must be broadened these days.
Let’s look at five representative cases. Note that I am not an attorney, so don’t take these comments as legal advice! To keep up with current trade secrets cases I highly recommend checking out the blog at Orrick. If you are protecting trade secrets, there is nothing so useful as “evidence based risk analysis.” You can’t mitigate every possible threat, so you need to keep up with attack patterns actually being used.
