Protecting intellectual property doesn’t have to start with an expensive cyber security solution.  Thorough preparation and organisation of your data can provide some security and ongoing cost benefits when security expenditure is eventually required.

1. Identify and classify intellectual property, build an asset list.

2. Implement access controls based on job roles and responsibilities.

3. Secure existing networks and systems.

4. Encrypt sensitive intellectual property both at rest and in transit.

5. Use data loss prevention solutions to cover your intellectual property from loss.

6. Protect intellectual property from insider threats, contractors and rouge employees.

7. Develop employee awareness and training of the importance of intellectual property.

8. Use data backup and recovery to protect against data loss, failure, or cyber-attacks.

9. Implement monitoring and detection including file integrity monitoring.

10. Assess the security of all your vendors using your intellectual property.

12. Follow all laws and regulations applicable to your intellectual property.

13. Have an incident response for situations where intellectual property is affected.

14. Document everything you do when protecting your intellectual property.