Insider threats continue to represent a major concern for all organizations. We were recently made aware of a situation where a major company was responding to a large Request for Pricing (RFP). The company uses FileNet as their Content Management application and has developed strict procedures to ensure the confidentiality of their files. Unfortunately, one of the staff members that worked on the RFP had a friend who worked for the competition. The employee saved the file to a flash drive and sent it to the friend at the competition. That person used the information to under bid the other company and ultimately won the business. Eventually, the theft was uncovered and the individuals involved were fired and the RFP was cancelled. There is no way to determine the cost of litigation but it is safe to assume that legal costs and fines will exceed a million dollars.
This type of document breach occurs on a daily basis and cost businesses hundreds of millions of dollars per year. Document loss can be prevented by implementing an Enterprise Digital Rights Management solution that applies persistent security to confidential files. In the case of this company if the RFP document had EDRM protection it would not have been accessible once it could not reach the company’s policy server.
photo credit nicolasnova
