To learn more about how to curb intellectual property theft, we reached out to a panel of intellectual property experts and business leaders for their best tips.

Getting personally identifiable information (PII) classification right is one of the first steps to having an effective data protection strategy. We break down four best practices in this blog.

As organizations continue to rely on third-party technologies, third-party breaches have become common. One of the key ways to prevent third-party vendor breaches is to monitor your attack surface continuously. What Is a Third-Party Breach? As the name suggests, third-party data breaches are security violations caused by third-party contractors, vendors, and other businesses affiliated with an organization. In attacks like this, while the compromise comes from a third party’s computer system or processes, it’s the sensitive data from your organization that is exposed. As a result, your organization can suffer guilt — and damage — just by association with a third-party breach. The maxim of being as strong as your weakest link couldn’t be more accurate regarding third-party violations. This is because all it takes is just one application, device, firmware, or software component from a third party to get compromised for an attacker to get a foothold in your enterprise supply or value chain. What Kind of Attacks or Vulnerabilities Can Come From Third Parties? A third-party breach, oftentimes through a vulnerability in vendor software, can create a backdoor for hackers to access the host system. These underlying vulnerabilities are no different from general cybersecurity threats that can arise from cloud misconfiguration, the principle of least privilege not being implemented, poor coding practices, poor antivirus defenses, etc. These are just a few of the cybersecurity attacks that can result from third-party risks: Spear phishing Intellectual property theft Unauthorized network intrusion Data exfiltration Advanced persistent threats (APT) Login credential theft Ransomware attacks Malware and virus propagation Third-party breaches can create procurement and value-chain risks as well as lead to a supply-chain attack. What Is a Supply Chain Attack? A supply chain is a distributed system that provides the materials, resources, expertise, and technologies — typically through an array of vendor companies — required to create a product. Supply chains are necessary because no business is 100% self-sufficient. This is especially the case with software products and the constantly evolving complexity of modern software infrastructure. Many software developers typically use open-source components, including resources from third parties, which can open an organization to risk. A supply chain attack undermines an organization by targeting the vulnerabilities in poorly secured supply chain elements. As a result, hackers launch supply chain attacks by weaponizing the weaknesses in third-party vendor components to infiltrate a company. Simply being part of a supply chain can increase your attack surface, something that can unfortunately make it challenging to detect and prevent attacks involving them. As an example, in cybersecurity circles, although SolarWinds is a US information technology firm, it is now associated with something more pernicious. The SolarWinds hack, in which hackers infiltrated a backdoor in SolarWinds software and launched a malware attack, is already regarded as one of the most significant cybersecurity breaches of the 21st century. Attackers did this by compromising “Orion,” a widely used SolarWinds application. This consequently meant any company that used SolarWinds was automatically at risk. It’s estimated that about 18,000 SolarWinds customers were eventually exposed to the breach. The hack highlighted how devastating a supply chain attack can be now that global supply chains have become more complicated than ever. Supply Chain Regulations Supply chain attacks can disrupt and hinder businesses. In the aftermath of the SolarWinds cyber attack, policymakers have stepped up to provide more oversight. As a result, legislation and regulations have been crafted to provide adequate supply chain management. On February 24th, 2021, the Biden Administration issued an Executive Order to make America’s supply chains more secure and resilient. It tasked the heads of appropriate agencies to assess vulnerabilities and issue reports on critical supply chains for the US economy's vital industrial sectors and subsectors. On the first anniversary of the executive order, on February 24th, 2022, the White House issued The Biden-Harris Plan to Revitalize American Manufacturing and Secure Critical Supply Chains in 2022. Along with the capstone report, it emphasized the need to evaluate supply chain vulnerabilities across key product areas such as large-capacity batteries, semiconductors, critical materials, and minerals, along with pharmaceutical ingredients. In March 2022, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) unveiled proposed amendments to cybersecurity governance and risk management strategies. These were rules meant to enhance cybersecurity public disclosures, especially incident reporting by public companies. Supply Chain Compliance Standards These regulations compel organizations to adhere to specific compliance standards to maintain cybersecurity resilience. Some of these compliance standards and practices include: Maintaining up-to-date patch management. Clear audit and reporting procedures for transparency. Conducting third-party risk assessment and due diligence. Creation of standard operating procedures and policies for cyber incidents. Running penetration tests to evaluate the rigor of systems and their defenses. How to Respond to a Third-Party Breach Your organization needs to take steps in the event of a third-party breach. Preserve Evidence Having documented evidence is vital when it’s time to report the data breach to the relevant authorities accurately. Cybercriminals and malware have grown stealthier, making their activity more difficult to detect. Organizations may need to use forensic investigators to help uncover evidence depending on the scope. Respond Promptly Time is of the essence. The longer you take to respond to a security breach, the more time hackers have to burrow deeper into the corporate network and cause damage. Implement a Contingency and Incident Response Plan Develop threat models and contingency plans. In addition to enabling you to visualize potential threats, it gives you the latitude to respond nimbly when your supply chain is jeopardized. Provide Full Disclosure Data protection regulations like HIPAA and GDPR have reporting mandates to be upheld in a data breach. Ensure you have a notification toolkit that covers all the ground you need to cover in responding to policyholders, perhaps incorporating a data breach notification analysis. Security Best Practices To Prevent Third-Party Breaches Organizations must adopt a holistic approach to combat third-party breaches. A comprehensive third-party and supply chain management should include the following best practices:

To gain some insight into recent ransomware attacks, we look at 50 different attacks from December 2021 to December 2022.

The Protecting American Intellectual Property Act, signed into law last week, authorizes sanctions for organizations and individuals who carry out trade secret theft that harms the United States.

26 Intellectual Property Experts & Business Leaders Reveal the Biggest Misconceptions Companies Have About Insider IP Theft

Your organization is likely required to disclose data breaches to the proper authorities in your state, but sometimes going one step further is just as important.

Phishing simulation training? Audits? Incentivizing training? We talked to 18 infosec leaders and asked them what the best tools and techniques for employee security awareness training are.

Panama’s data protection law, similar to the European Union's GDPR, regulates the processing of personal data in the country and requires data be kept confidential, in a secure database.

Trying to find the right DLP solution for your organization? Learn how to get started with the latest tips for evaluating providers in this blog.

Preventing data loss is extremely important for any business. Without implementing certain procedures, your company could lose sensitive, important data.

Brand protection is a high priority for companies. If your brand’s reputation is tarnished, sales may drop due to the brand’s poor image. Why Is Brand Protection Important? Brand protection is important because it allows a company to protect its image by removing copycats from the marketplace, which possibly tarnishes the reputation of its products or services. Brand protection encompasses a series of actions taken by a right holder to prevent the intellectual property associated with their brand from being abused by third parties. The perpetrators are typically bad actors like counterfeiters and copycats who illegally infringe on a brand name, brand identity, and intellectual property for personal and financial gain. These are the core elements that constitute a brand and brand protection: Intellectual Property (IP): Brands use all manner of IP to safeguard assets associated with the brands. These typically include patents, copyrights, trademarks, and so on. According to the 2017 report by The Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property, US businesses lose approximately $600 billion through various manner of intellectual property theft such as pirated software, counterfeited goods, and stolen trade secrets. Reputation: A brand is coveted because it represents how the general public perceives a company, the quality of its products, its values, and its standing in the community. As a result, companies work hard to build, preserve, protect and embellish their brand reputation. The Benefits of Brand Protection Brand protection provides many direct benefits and ancillary benefits. Improved Sales and Revenue Businesses can generate more sales and boost their revenue without scammers, forgers, and counterfeit products eating into sales and financial opportunities. Increased Profit Margins Automated brand protection strategically puts mechanisms and systems in place to detect, monitor, and forestall attempts at copyright infringement. Since low-quality products have been removed or prevented from proliferation, customers would be more likely to spend on reliable, high-quality products. This saves businesses valuable time and frees up valuable energy and money in the form of profit that would have otherwise been chipped away by fighting the illegal shenanigans of unscrupulous actors. Improved Reputation and Partnerships When a business and its products are no longer associated with mediocrity due to fake goods, it generates goodwill among the public. Furthermore, this leads to an improved reputation, creating more customer loyalty. As a result, retailers, vendors, distributors, and other partners will be more likely to engage in partnerships with the business and its associated brands. The Threats To Brand Reputation And Image Threats to brand reputation come in various forms and are manifested in intellectual property theft, copyright infringement, and all many other nefarious counterfeitings. Copyright Piracy: This encompasses the infringement of copyrighted work through unauthorized activity such as copying, display, performance, and/or illegal distribution. Counterfeiting: Counterfeiting encompasses broad-based illegal activities that typically involve some of the following:Illegal labeling and violations of trademarks, patents, copyrights, and design rights to deceive consumers that the product or business is affiliated with the legitimate brand.Unauthorized manufacture and distribution of illicit goods under another person’s or brand’s name without permission. Patent Theft: Infringing on patent rights by using a patented product without permission or license. Grey Market or Parallel Market: This is the sale of legitimate goods without the trademark owner’s consent in a certain market or economic area. The goods are effectively diverted outside the official distribution channels without the trademark holder’s approval. Trademark Abuse: This includes brand impersonation schemes. Brandjacking: This is the unauthorized use of a company’s brand, often through online impersonation that assumes the brand’s identity. In our increasingly digital-inhabited society, social media impersonation is becoming more rampant. Brandjacking skirts the line of criminality, but it is an underhanded method that usually involves leveraging another business’s brand for one’s own marketing purposes. Brand Impersonation: As the name implies, brand impersonation occurs when unscrupulous parties impersonate a valued brand with the objective of tricking unsuspecting victims into fraudulent business transactions. Trademark Squatting: This happens when someone other than the valid brand owner registers a trademark. Threat Intelligence Steps to Establish Brand Protection Companies usually follow the process below as a course of action to pursue effective brand protection. Detection Organizations must be vigilant by continuously monitoring their online properties and investigating any possible abuse or infringement of their brand’s position. This involves discovering rogue websites, fake social media profiles, and counterfeit e-commerce listings. Implementing security software for anti-phishing to prevent impersonations that are often a precursor to brand infringements. In addition to scouting the internet for online infringement, they must investigate attempts to perpetrate IP violations in brick-and-mortar establishments. In essence, this phase of brand protection involves detecting risks early and alerting the relevant authorities when violations occur. Most often than not, the threat intelligence used here typically involves various aspects of cybersecurity defenses and monitoring. Validation This process involves verifying and confirming that the IP and copyright abuses identified are valid. This is important because while an organization vigorously enforces IP rights, it should ensure compliant companies aren’t penalized or subjected to undue burdens. Proactive cybersecurity measures are instituted to validate, anticipate, and prevent potential brand infringement threats. Enforcement Brand protection involves compelling compliance, so organizations have a role in ensuring laws and obligations are adequately followed in protecting their IP. This may include working with the relevant authorities to close illicit product listings, shut down rogue websites, remove misleading online postings, and take down fake social media accounts. Reporting Organizations need to have an inventory of the status of their intellectual property and the scope of violations, along with actionable information to improve their brand protection and security posture. How Do Data Breaches Affect Brand Protection? Data breaches inflict incalculable damage to business brands. According to IBM’s 2022 Cost of Data Breach Report, a data breach’s average cost has skyrocketed to $4.24 million. While financial estimates are easier to pin down, other debilitating impacts are more difficult to quantify, such as reputational damage and the destruction of customer trust and goodwill. Reputational Damage Brands are based on reputation generated by sustained goodwill — or lack thereof — with the general public. As a result, brands are understandably sensitive to anything that erodes their hard-earned reputation. Unfortunately, reputational damage resulting from cybersecurity breaches is not an isolated affair since as much as 46% of organizations have been impacted. A data breach can cause a serious dent in a brand image that is very hard to recover from, especially for smaller businesses that don’t have the marketing or PR power to counter negative publicity. Data Breach Damages Consumer Trust One of the worst things IP assaults on brands do, whether through counterfeit products or data breaches, is massively undermining the trust and goodwill of the brand. While brands jealously guard their reputation, data breaches are more insidious because, in addition to financial damage, they often result in broken customer trust, which is difficult to repair. This damage is worsened by the fact that negative customer sentiments can quickly spread through online reviews and social media. Data breaches signal to the public that the affected organization cannot be trusted as a custodian of customer data, including personally identifiable. Worse, it may build a narrative, whether justifiable or not, that the organization is careless or doesn’t take security seriously. Loss of Competitive Advantage A successful brand gives the business a competitive advantage that competitors in the same market or industry cannot easily replicate. This is because, in addition to its distinct features, the intangible value, benefits, and emotional bond a brand forges with customers make it challenging for competitors to copy willy-nilly. However, a data breach undermines a brand’s wholesome image and, in turn, can weaken its competitive advantage.

Having a data classification matrix, part of a comprehensive data classification policy, can help organizations better determine the risk level of data.