5 Simple Tips to Protect Yourself From Intellectual Property Theft and Fraud

Many businesses are at risk of property theft and fraud, causing huge losses in revenue.  Implementing some simple preventative measures can decrease your risk and protect your intellectual property and goods.

1.  The first step in protecting your business is installing a verified alarm system.  Verified alarm systems are different from traditional alarms because they verify the alarm for you.  You will not be dealing with false alarms in the middle of the night that require you to reset your alarm.  Verified alarm companies monitor audio or video security when the sound-based or motion-based alarms are tripped.  If a criminal is attempting to break-in to your business, they dispatch the police immediately.  Verified alarms receive prompt police response and result in criminal apprehensions.  If it is a false alarm, the monitoring station simply resets the alarm.

2.  The second step in protecting your business is a managed access control system.  This will help you monitor which employees access certain areas in your business and allows you to restrict access to certain hours of the day.  Additionally, a managed access control system restricts unauthorized persons from accessing your facility – without the proper key card access, they will be unable to enter.  Electronic key cards and fobs used with managed access control are also easy to disable – in the event that an employee no longer works at your business, it’s simple to remove their access.  This is a simple step you can take if you have a disgruntled employee who still has a key to your building.

3.  Criminal record checks are an important part of employee screening.  Your intellectual property is vulnerable to theft from outside criminals and also internal employees.  Reduce your risk by thoroughly screening employees prior to employment to identify any potential risk factors.

4.  If you’ve implemented a managed access system, you can take an extra step to protect intellectual property, client information or high-end products by limiting access to a specific office or server room.  Restrict access to managers or authorized persons to limit the amount of people who are able to access the room.

5.  Unsecured workstations increase your vulnerability to theft.  Secure your workstations, disable drives and protect your printers.  This will limit easy access to important internal information.  Securing your workstations will ensure the smash-and-grab criminal cannot remove a computer drive easily.  Disabling drives such as USB ports or other means of connecting external drives prevent employees from copying confidential data.  Protecting your printers reduces the chances of printer theft – printers often hold data in their on-board memory.

Implementing these five preventative security measures can considerably reduce your risk of theft.  Theft of intellectual property and confidential information can lead to many negative consequences for your business.  Make sure to take the steps to protect yourself from loss.

The Renwick Group has the knowledge and experience to help you or your business solve problems such as fraud, skip tracing, locating people, litigation support, labour dispute management, and more.. Please call us at 1 (888) 722-9807 to discuss your situation.