Industry

The real value of a company is not to be found in gold or money, but in its data. The data embodies the intellectual property that gives a company its competitive edge. And it‘s not only the Chinese that have recognized it. The intelligence agencies in the West also appear to believe that no methods are taboo as they strive to access confidential information under the guise of combating terrorism. In an age of global collaboration, the protection of intellectual property has become a serious challenge.

The case involving Edward Snowden has shown us two things: Firstly, how remiss we are when it comes to handling confidential information and secondly, how shamelessly inquisitive intelligence services exploit this fact. It‘s anyone‘s guess whether they really only use the information they extract for intelligence purposes or also for economic purposes. What is clear is that e-mail encryption alone is not enough to protect our know-how – we need protection mechanisms that are integrated in the e-mail programs themselves.