At Perpetual Entertainment, protecting intellectual property is no game. But given the long lead times between the beginning of software development and product announcement, source code leakage is a huge concern for this online gaming start-up.

After signing a contract with Viacom Consumer Products, for example, Perpetual had to wait more than a year before it could talk about the "massively multiplayer" online Star Trek game it had been licensed to develop. Imagine the madness - and business problems - that would have ensued should word of or source code from this project have hit the streets earlier than intended. "With the type of products we deliver, it is imperative that we protect all of our intellectual property," says Mark Rizzo, vice president of network operations at the San Francisco company.

Perpetual is not alone in its fear that confidential data could, either maliciously or through carelessness, be sent out. And with potential impact from leaked information including plunging share prices, decreased customer trust, loss of competitive positioning and potential legal sanctions, the concerns are warranted.

Fortunately, a handful of start-ups have begun delivering tools aimed at addressing this security issue. Secure content management (SCM) products, from vendors such as Reconnex, Tablus, Verdasys, Vericept and Vontu, protect corporate data by detecting, and sometimes blocking, messages containing confidential information. Company policies enable SCM tools to deduce whether information should stay inside or go beyond the corporate boundary. The tools scan information as it leaves, comparing it to a list of file names and key terms stored in a database, and then identify any matches. Some tools block questionable data from leaving the network, while others simply note each instance. They range in price from $25,000 to $100,000, depending on a company's size.

An alarming problem

For Perpetual, Rizzo prefers the unobtrusive nature of Content Alarm from Tablus, a product he learned about two years ago while examining SCM options for a former employer. Within a few months of joining Perpetual in the summer of 2003, Rizzo added Content Alarm to the company's security palette. He set it up to look for specific types of file attachments, such as source code and business plan spreadsheets, or words, like "Star Trek," in e-mails. Content Alarm sits on the network and watches information as it flows out of the firm.