Skip Links

Network World

  • Social Web 
  • Email 
  • Close

Content filtering to protect intellectual property

Insider Threat By Naomi Fine , NetworkWorld.com , 11/20/2006

My company recently got into a dispute about intellectual property. The lawyers for the other side came back and showed us that employees at our company had sent this information to partners and customers without an NDA. My company now is going to settle the suit; what could we have done better?

Content monitoring and filtering technology is an IP protection tool. It allows companies to locate the roots of IP-sensitive data and information - and implement legal, policy, personnel, process, and technology protections to safeguard it. Protecting IP requires a sophisticated solution that can recognize sensitive content in all of its variants and amorphous forms. To be useful, many companies need the content monitoring solution to incorporate complex intelligence to distinguish circumstances that represent risk from those that do not.

IP concepts provide a means to define - and therefore detect, monitor, and control - unique content, in all its permutations. The ability to monitor by context, such as who sent what, where, when, and how, and to use content variations to account for the amorphous nature of IP, contributes to a company's IP protection. Likewise, for some companies the ability to search an archive and explore the historical context of an incident adds to the depth and value of the protection.

Based on interviews done with customers as part of a recent study, Pro-Tec Data found an adaptive feedback loop is used to address these IP assets:

Companies define their IP, including typical and derivative representations.

Monitoring technology is used to scan the network, including servers, email gateways, and user machines, to discover IP at rest and the circumstances of its use and transmission.

Companies use the results of the discover process to develop IP fingerprinting concepts, which incorporate the circumstances of IP use and transmission and which also distinguish sensitive from non-sensitive information and authorized from unauthorized transactions.

Advanced technology monitors for IP content using multi-vector, concept-based detection and alerts companies to rule violations.

Companies investigate rule violations by searching a capture database, which allows them to understand the historical circumstances of the security incidents.

Partner Content

Brilliantly simple security and control solutions for email, web and endpoint

www.sophos.com

Stopping data leakage

Learn how to exploit your current security investment to control the information that flows into, through and out of your network.

Download the white paper.

Why detection rates aren't enough

Evaluating endpoint security products is a time-consuming and daunting task. Learn the six critical questions you need to ask prospective vendors to get the right endpoint solution.

Download the white paper.

Applications: taking back control

Employees installing unauthorized applications is a growing threat to business security and productivity. Cost-effectively reduce this threat by integrating control into your malware protection.

Learn more today.

Comment
Login
Forgot your account info?
Add comment
Anonymous comments subject to approval. Register here for member benefits.
Have a NetworkWorld account? Log in here. Register now for a free account.

Videos

rssRss Feed

Whitepapers

Magic Quadrant for Application Delivery Controllers

Gartner summarizes its view on Application Delivery Controllers, evaluates strengths and weaknesses...

Vulnerability Management For Dummies

Download this concise book "Vulnerability Management for Dummies," to learn about the simple steps...

The ROI and TCO Benefits of Data Deduplication for Data Protection in the Enterprise

This paper examines and quantifies the costs and benefits of backup with deduplication storage as...

Webcasts

Transforming the Enterprise WAN Edge: Video from Cisco

Life on the edge of your WAN has changed dramatically. With the need to deliver advanced services,...

PoE Plus: Impact on the PoE Market

The standard for Power over Ethernet (PoE), IEEE Std. 802.3af(tm)-2003, advanced networking,...

Harnessing the power of communications to increase workplace performance

Due to the convergence of IT and telecommunications technologies, the business workplace has been...

Special Reports

The Evolution of Network Security

We have so many holes punched in our firewalls today that many industry insiders question the value...

The self-managed network

We aren't there yet, but advances in network and systems management tools are making it possible to...

Get instant email notification when white papers, webcasts, executive guides are added to our library. Stay informed and up-to-date with the latest on IT Technologies with Network World's Resource Alerts.