As the size, complexity, and interconnectedness of modern companies' IT infrastructures has increased, so too has the risk of corporate espionage and cyber attacks targeting companies' intellectual property. In-house and outside counsel must be ready to deal with the risk that their clients' confidential information will be stolen, potentially undermining the company's trade secret assets. Recently, DuPont's large share of the world's multi-billion-dollar-a-year titanium dioxide market was threatened by the alleged theft of its trade secret manufacturing techniques by overseas competitor Pangang Group. See United States v. Pangang Group Co. (N.D. Cal. Case No. 11-0573). Similarly, Chinese wind turbine manufacturer Sinovel was indicted this past June for misappropriation of trade secrets valued at $1 billion from Massachusetts-based energy company AMSC. See United States of America v. Sinovel Wind Group Co., Ltd. et al (W.D. Wis. Case No. 13-084). Theft of trade secrets can occur on a smaller scale as well. All it takes is an employee who unwittingly plugs a flash drive with spyware into a company computer, or a disgruntled IT staff member with access to sensitive databases.
Preventative measures abound, including hiring cyber security experts, removing USB ports from corporate computers, enforcing bring-your-own-device policies that govern the use of personal devices for work...
