Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

The business world continues to move to a knowledge-worker-based economy. Companies derive less and less value from widgets and more from the processes, ideas, and innovations they create — their intellectual property (IP). But IP needs to be protected. IP theft is the appropriation of unique ideas, inventions, or theft of trade secrets, usually by malicious insiders.

Employee fraud is not just a rare occurrence, but a prevalent issue in the American workplace. Shockingly, three out of four employees have confessed to stealing from their workplace at least once for personal gain. The types of fraud are diverse, ranging from petty theft to complex schemes involving benefits, accounts receivable fraud, or intellectual property. The risk of employee fraud affects both small and large businesses.

Intellectual property (IP) is the intangible property belonging to a company, such as its designs, creative expressions, inventions, or trade secrets. Intellectual property theft leads to serious financial damage for a company, including decreased business growth and loss of competitive edge. Sometimes, companies aren’t even aware that their IP has been stolen, making tracking IP theft difficult. Even though it’s a federal crime, only a small percentage of all IP theft cases are reported.

Could your employees be unintentionally putting your business at risk? While companies prioritize protection against external cyber threats, the often-overlooked unintentional insider threats can lead to significant financial and reputational risks for your business. These threats can come from simple human errors, such as accidental data sharing, misconfigurations, or falling victim to phishing attacks.

How safe is your business from an employee stealing data? Employee data theft refers to the unauthorized access, transfer, or misuse of a company’s confidential data by its employees. Whether driven by malice or negligence, this type of data theft poses a significant risk to your business’s security and reputation. As incidents of insider threats rise, it becomes crucial for companies to identify the warning signs and implement the necessary preventive measures.

Already in 2024, nearly 10,000 publicly disclosed global data breaches affected hundreds of millions of user records. Apple, Meta, and Twitter all succumbed to data breaches in 2024 (and numerous times in the past), providing the public and its shareholders with a stark reminder that malicious activity constantly makes user data susceptible to cybercriminal activity, no matter the platform or level of password security.

In IT, endpoints are the physical devices that connect to a network system. In a corporate environment, endpoints include mobile devices, desktop computers, laptops, servers, and other equipment employees use to access the network and other critical digital systems. A company with fewer than 50 employees typically averages around 22 endpoints, 50-100 employees average more than 100, and companies with more than 1,000 employees average nearly 2,000.