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Companies face an unprecedented new normal—which may last for months or prove
permanent—of a fully or partially remote workforce. This transition to remote work has
forced rapid technology adoption (e.g., cloud-based technologies) and increased long-
and short-term risk for trade-secret protection. Below are ten key questions that
companies should ask, with practical guidance that they can follow, to safeguard and
protect their trade secrets in a remote-work environment.
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What constitutes a “trade secret” is broader than most employees recognize. This is
problematic given that the employee creates, saves, and disseminates trade secrets.
Recommendations: Companies should deploy a learning-based, trade-secret training
program, and not just a cursory section in employee on-boarding. Policies and
agreements should not use boilerplate language to describe “confidential” information
as it may not practically or legally put employees on notice. If a company does not have
a stand-alone trade-secret policy, this is a ripe time to produce one.
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Recommendations: Companies should have policies and training on the use of free
platforms, restrict unapproved programs on corporate devices, and provide enterprise
solutions that employees need to work efficiently.
7. Are security policies being deployed to protect data from outside and
internal threats to personal devices?
Employees’ personal devices can be more vulnerable to outside attacks than a
company’s secure architecture. Copying and pasting sensitive and confidential data to
external media is a common tactic used by trade-secret theft offenders.
Recommendation: Companies should have security policies with minimum
requirements for employees’ devices and Wi-Fi settings. Employees should certify
compliance. Implementing a domain-wide group policy to restrict writing to media
connected via USB port can prevent copying and pasting to external media. Companies
should evaluate VPN and remote-access protocols to determine what limitations a
remote employee has to copy data outside that system to a local device.
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8. Are hard copy or tangible trade secrets protected?
If an employee prints a document or has tangible trade secrets at home, someone
outside the company may view them. This risk is high when the employee has
roommates who could even be working for rival companies.
Recommendations: Companies should review “clean desk” policies and bolster them
to apply to remote-work scenarios, including discouraging printing trade-secret
documents. Companies should provide instructions for destruction, and educate
employees on secure ways to store tangible company material, such as in a locked
drawer and, where appropriate, provide tools, like shredders.
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