A frequently unaddressed challenge is that companies’ most confidential documents are often those that travel the most outside the enterprise. Business depends on sharing information in collaborative processes like coordination among board members; working with research, supply and distribution partners; and communications with outside experts such as external counsel, consultants, auditors and regulatory authorities. However the more a document has to be accessed outside the corporate network, the greater the risk of leakage, so a company’s most sensitive documents are at much greater risk than other documents.

To use the cloud or not to use the cloud, that is the question.

I recently met with the CEO of a large company who had suffered a network security breach. He asked the question, why did this happen and why didn’t my Information Systems people prevent the attack? My answer was simple. As the CEO, you drive your business to have network connectivity and availability. Security is something that always seems to get in the way and only becomes a priority when something bad happens.

While most businesses typically take a lot of care in securing the technology within their corporate network, many are not adequately protected against the security threats that remote and mobile workers introduce.

If the CEO or chairperson of the organization you work for asked you to use questionable techniques to find out who was leaking corporate secrets, what would you do?