How To Tighten Data Security And Avoid A Major Trade-Secret Breach

Unless companies make some serious changes to their approaches for protecting confidential data, they're just waiting to be the next in line for a serious data breach. That was the message conveyed by a panel of data security veterans convened by Xerox in New York Tuesday to address threats -- both external and internal -- to trade secrets and other corporate data.

"There are catastrophic events awaiting companies" that are "structurally resistant" to believing that a given security threat pertains to them, John Nolan, a retired operational intelligence officer who in 1990 co-founded Phoenix Consulting Group, said Tuesday.

Indeed, trade secret compromises are inevitable if companies don't restrict access to a strict need-to-know basis and prohibit anyone but the highest company executives with access to the most sensitive data. "And have them sign contracts stating how they will use that information," R. Mark Halligan, a partner with the corporate law firm Lovells LLP, said during the panel discussion.