Crisis management: are you ready for the cyber theft of your intellectual property?

I was watching the Airbus annual press conference this morning and came across this interesting question from Angela Charlton, AP. “Did the recent data breach pose a threat to Airbus’ intellectual property?”

The question, and answer by Guillaume Faury, are a stark reminder of the risks posed today by the digital world and of the need for companies of all sizes to adequately prepare for attacks and defend their data.

On data breach or cyber attack, first I have to say that we are constantly under attack, this is the new world we are living in and we do not anticipate any weakening of this. (Guillaume Faury, President Airbus Commercial Aircraft)

Intellectual Property Theft

When we think data, most of us think about personal data and credit card information. However “data” refers to an extremely broad range of information. And as Deloitte writes in this report “compared with more familiar cybercrimes such as the theft of credit card, consumer health, and other personally identifiable information (PII)—which regulations generally require be publicly reported—IP cyber theft has largely remained in the shadows”.

The question from the AP report brought to mind of a conversation I recently had in Milan with Mark Lowe (a follower on LinkedIn turned friend), on the risks cyber poses to intellectual property. Intellectual property theft is most probably the biggest threat to any enterprise. Yet Mark pointed out this is an aspect few companies, especially small and medium enterprises, are fully aware of. 

Intellectual property can constitute more than 80 percent of a single company’s value today. ( Ocean Tomo, LLC)

The Highest Price Tag

The costs and impacts of cyber incidents is high. However, of all cyber crimes, IP theft is the one that carries the highest price tag. And from a crisis management point of view it extremely difficult, if not impossible to manage. By the time companies realize they have been hacked, competitive products may already be on the market thus making any mitigation initiative useless.

Although industrial espionage has always been with us, cyber espionage takes it to an all new level of risk and complexity.

Given their importance to growth, market share, and innovation, IP and cyber risk should rightly sit with other strategic initiatives man- aged at the C-suite level (Deloitte)

#intellectualproperty #cyberisks #databreach #crisismanagement #cybercrimes

Share this

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *