A very public industrial espionage case involving allegations that an employee tried to sell proprietary information from Coca-Cola to Pepsi is a timely reminder of the issues arising from trusted insiders. It is alleged that the employee, an administratrive assistant in the marketing function having ready access to highly sensitive information, removed it from the office and offered to sell it to Coke's arch rival. Pepsi presumably alerted the auhorities who ran a 'sting' to catch the alleged perpetrator red-handed. Even with the benefit of 20-20 hindsight, it is unclear what Coke management might reasonably have done to address this risk. Better screening and supervision of employees, maybe? Clearer policies on control of sensitive information in whatever format, e.g. "secret information must not be removed from the office"? An employee who is prepared to offer secrets for sale to a competitor seems unlikely to heed such policies. Better detective and corrective controls might perhaps have identified the exposure before things got out of hand, especially if there were preliminary incidents. Due to the implending court action, there is limited information on the details of the case, for example the news article does not state whether the accused had an exemplary record.
More links on keeping secrets
No comments:
Post a Comment