Cybersecurity and trade secret theft in remote work environments: Lessons from the COVID-19 era
Intellectual Property and Technology Law, American University, Washington, DC, United States.
Research Article
World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews, 2022, 16(02), 1288–1293
Publication history:
Received on 28 September 2022; revised on 25 November 2022; accepted on 28 November 2022
Abstract:
The increase in remote work occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly affected the protection of trade secrets and the maintenance of good cybersecurity. This means that companies that allow employees to work from distant locations are now more exposed to cyberattacks and attacks because there are many entry points. The most important weaknesses involve insufficient password security, obsolete software and insufficient shielding for endpoints.
Existing laws do not explicitly define how to protect trade secrets in remote work. The provision of the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) provides a framework for organizations to ensure reasonable security of their trade secrets. However, the nature of remote jobs will make it harder to comply with many potentially conflicting data protection laws. Addressing this new risk would require the adoption of strong data encryption, secure remote access and regulatory policies for handling data.
Keywords:
Remote work; Cybersecurity; Trade secrets and theft; COVID-19; Legal issues
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Copyright information:
Copyright © 2022 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article. This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Liscense 4.0