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Data Theft: Corporate America's Key Assets At RiskATLANTA, July 20, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Responding to the increasing cyber threat to organizations' most vital confidential information – their "knowledge assets" – Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton and Ponemon Institute released today their findings from The Cybersecurity Risk to Knowledge Assets study. This inaugural study kicks off an initiative to provide organizations with the tools they need to protect their most important assets in the information age. Knowledge assets are confidential information critical to a company's core business -- other than personal information that would trigger notice requirements under law -- including trade secrets and corporate confidential information such as product design, development or pricing; other non-public information about the organization, its plans or relationships; or other crucial customer information. The survey was conducted to determine the extent of the risk and organizational effectiveness in safeguarding such data, to assess whether the widespread publicity accorded data breaches subject to notification laws and related regulatory requirements have skewed organizations away from a focus on theft or loss of their most critical information, and to compile and provide helpful practices. More than 600 individuals familiar with their companies' approach to managing knowledge assets and involved in the management process were surveyed. How serious is the threat and how prepared are corporate entities?
Mr. Neiditz continued, "By focusing on the application of good cybersecurity risk management principles to prioritized knowledge assets, this research breaks new ground for boards of directors and organizational leaders in fields such as information security, legal, audit, risk management, compliance, IT, intellectual property, privacy, human resources and procurement. The importance to chief privacy officers, for example, is evident from non-notice-triggering customer information being respondents' highest-valued knowledge asset across all industries. To all organizational leaders, the study offers a call to action and a set of arguments justifying action while also providing an ongoing chronicle of successful and unsuccessful practices and programs." "Companies face a serious challenge in the protection of their knowledge assets. The good news is there are steps to take to reduce the risk," said Dr. Larry Ponemon, Chairman and Founder, Ponemon Institute. "First of all, understand the knowledge assets critical to your company and ensure they are secured. Make sure the protection of knowledge assets, especially when sharing with third parties, is an integral part of your security strategy, including incident response plans. To address the employee negligence problem, ensure training programs specifically address employee negligence when handling sensitive and high value data." For a copy of the executive summary and full report, please click here. About Kilpatrick Townsend To help safeguard our clients' information, business operations, intellectual property, and corporate reputations, Kilpatrick Townsend's Cybersecurity, Privacy & Data Governance Practice offers the full spectrum of cyber legal services across the U.S., Canada, Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Our integrated team of multidisciplinary attorneys uses its in-depth experience and legal acumen to help clients identify and protect their knowledge assets and prepare for and effectively respond to data breaches and incidents. For more information, please click here. About Ponemon Institute The Ponemon Institute© is dedicated to advancing responsible information and privacy management practices in business and government. To achieve this objective, the Institute conducts independent research, educates leaders from the private and public sectors and verifies the privacy and data protection practices of organizations in a variety of industries. For more information, please click here. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160719/391177-INFO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/data-theft-corporate-americas-key-assets-at-risk-300301391.html SOURCE Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton |