Threats to data security are a global problem as businesses in India are finding out. In particular, Indian companies are increasingly at risk of corporate espionage and are racing to IT security firms for help.
According to an article in The Economic Times/India Times, some studies indicate that as much as 35% of Indian companies engage in some form of corporate espionage. Corporate espionage is defined as companies that indulge in illegal and unethical activities to gain information from competitors to give themselves an undue advantage. It is such a threat that the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry considers corporate espionage the 9th greatest threat facing Indian businesses.
A recent corporate espionage case that resulted in several arrests made the news and caused business leaders to question the security of their corporate secrets. Seven people were detained in the recent corporate espionage case including officials from:
- Reliance Industries
- Essar Oil
- Cairn India
- Jubilant Energy
- Reliance Group
While most corporate secrets leak by means of a person physically removing sensitive documents from company facilities, Indian business owners and managers are realizing that their electronic data is just as much at risk.
A top executive of another big corporate house is quoted,
“We have firewalls to stop unauthorised access. We also have a system that restricts the movement of physical files and we conduct regular audits on senior executive who are privy to sensitive information. But today, the big concern is theft of digital information and for that very, very few Indian companies have protection.”
Business owners and managers work hard to get and keep a competitive advantage over their competitors. Keeping their corporate secrets a secret should be a top priority. One way business owners can help reduce their risk of becoming the next corporate espionage victim is to work with an IT security specialist for their data containing devices that are in use and data destruction specialists for those devices that are no longer in use. If you have data containing devices sitting around your facility that contain corporate secrets and need to be destroyed – give us a call.