Trade Secret Theft on the Cloud: Concerns For Both Employers and Employees

Max Taves authored an article posted by Law Technology News  entitled "Trade Secret Spats Center on Cloud."  The article highlights the increasing difficulty employers face when trying to avoid theft of confidential information when employees have access to third party storage providers such as DropBox, Googe Docs, SugarSync, and SkyDrive.  Third party data storage providers enable users to either locally sync or upload documents at work which can be accessed from another computer.  I have posted on tips for employers to reduce the risk of this kind of theft. Essentially, to mitigate risks and have evidence of theft, businesses need a robust and frequently updated fraud management plan.  

What I also found blogworthy in this article was how use of cloud based document storage posses a risk for employees as well.  One attorney in a high profile case pointed out that an employee’s use of DropBox, or similar provider, could generate the appearance that the employee may have stolen data even if they did not intend to do so.  I have seen this happen several times and it can be a big problem.

An employee may use DropBox to store personal information (family photos, resume, etc) but also mix in company documents to work from home.  The employee may leave for another job and forget that he or she still has documents from the former employer.  The employee could end up in a lawsuit because the employer may believe documents were stolen by use of DropBox.  Having already used DropBox at work, it may be even more problematic to show evidence of returning such documents or deleting them.  

The take away here is that use of cloud storage creates a risk for both employers and employees when it comes to confidential information.  While employers should develop a fraud management plan, employees would be well advised to have clear permission to use cloud storage providers. To avoid or reduce the risk of a lawsuit, employees should also seek to address cloud storage as part of an exit strategy.  Even if an employee has no desire to use confidential information after leaving, ignoring the issue is a big risk that may create the wrong impression. 

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