Keeping company secrets secret

Information security professionals and those they support must understand the threat to company secrets posed by foreign intelligence services, and foreign and domestic competitors, who may use legal or illegal means to acquire those secrets. Implementing protection policies and control measures to prevent the exploitation of corporate secrets requires support from senior management. An eight-step counter-competitor intelligence model is proposed for determining what information requires protection; analyzing, assessing and ranking risks; developing security controls; and conducting an effectiveness review. Once this analysis is completed, an information protection program can be developed or revised, and communicated throughout the corporation. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.