Chico's finds right fit in digital rights management

At Chico’s, a retailer that operates 925 women’s specialty stores nationwide, there’s a need to keep dress designs and other plans for the future under wraps to ward off copycat competitors.

To do that, Chico’s business and IT managers have put in place a strategy to protect critical intellectual property that involves applying digital rights management (DRM) to desktop computers used by design staff and others. The process entails adding DRM software from Liquid Machines to encrypt sensitive data and restrict the ability to read, write or print design documents by unauthorized personnel.

While some employees rebelled at the DRM lock-down on the desktop, it hasn’t hampered productivity, says Ed Martin, manager of IT security services at Chico’s, which is based in Ft. Myers, Fla.

“On a psychological level, there was some pushback,” Martin says, adding that the strategy to restrict use and access to sensitive electronic documents via DRM began about nine months ago. “Some wonder, are you treating them like criminals? You need to educate your constituents about the necessity of doing it and what your expectations are. Digital rights management can cause a little animosity.”

The push to find new methods to restrict employee access to sensitive data began about a year ago when Chico’s president and CEO Scott Edwards raised the issue of intellectual-property protection at a meeting. “He was motivating us to find ways to be extra diligent to protect information,” Martin says..

Executives at Chico’s were encouraging the IT department to restrict the ability to access documents and modify or print them, except by strictly authorized personnel. Martin says the IT department began looking at some DRM possibilities, including those from Microsoft, but decided the Liquid Machines DRM was easier to use, especially in terms of sharing encryption keys.

At a cost of about $30 per person for the Liquid Machines’ DRM software, Chico’s began adding it to desktops and servers to enforce policy-based restriction. The Chico’s clothing- design department was the first to receive the DRM software, and the process is ongoing to add about 1,000 other desktops in different business units.

“We’re very satisfied with it,” Martin says. “Two people know the password to the administrative console and two people have access to the encryption keys, and one of those keys is locked in a safe.”

Martin says Chico’s is looking at adding other safeguards for intellectual-property protection, including specialized encryption appliances for databases. No system is foolproof, however. Employees intent on copying documents they are allowed access to could do so through cameras. “We don’t forbid cameras on site,” Martin says. “I’d love to, but staff would revolt.”