Here at the Law Office of Vincent Miletti, Esq. and the home of the #UnusuallyMotivated movement, we take pride as a resilient and dependable legal services firm, providing such services in both a traditional and online, web-based environment. With mastered specialization in areas such as Employment and Labor Law, Intellectual Property (IP) (trademark, copyright, patent), Entertainment Law, and e-Commerce (Supply Chain, Distribution, Fulfillment, Standard Legal & Regulatory), we provide a range of legal services including, but not limited to traditional legal representation (litigation, mediation, arbitration, opinion letters and advisory), non-litigated business legal representation and legal counsel, and unique, online legal services such as smart forms, mobile training, legal marketing and development.
Still, we, here at Miletti Law®, feel obligated to enlighten, educate, and create awareness, free of charge, about how these issues and many others affect our unusually motivated® readers and/or their businesses. Accordingly, to achieve this goal, we have committed ourselves to creating authoritative, trustworthy, & distinctive content. Usually, this content is featured as videos posted on our YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtvUryqkkMAJLwrLu2BBt6w and blogs that are published on our website WWW.MILETTILAW.COM. With that, the ball is in your court and you have an effortless obligation to subscribe to the channel and sign up for the Newsletter on the website, which encompasses the best way to ensure that you stay in the loop and feel the positive impact of the knowledge bombs that we drop here!
As the authoritative force in Employment Law, it only seemed right to introduce one of the many upcoming series where we remain persistent in introducing a variety of topics, which will look to not only educate but also deliver in a sense that only Miletti Law® can. In this regard, this blog is titled “
Vital Cybersecurity Initiatives that Employers Should Take, No. 1” and is Part V of our series on “Cybersecurity Measures to Protect Employers.” In Part IV, we provided you with a hands-on guide concerning the “Core Aspects of Information Security Measure and Policies that could help Reduce Trade Secret Misappropriation/Loss Risks.”
As we continue to hammer on and explore other key cybersecurity issues, this blog, which is Part V of the series, is an overview of one of the five vital cybersecurity initiatives that every employer should take as part of taking reasonable measures to protect confidential information and trade secrets.
Consistent & Continuous Improvement and Monitoring of Cybersecurity Policies & Measures
Based on the growth of incidents and as the need arises, it is important for cybersecurity measures to be improved and monitored consistently and continuously. In line with requirements of the DTSA and state Uniform Trade Secrets Acts, a variety of improvement and monitoring efforts can reinforce an employer’s claim in a court that they have taken reasonable steps in putting in place, implementing, and reinforcing cybersecurity policies and measures to protect their confidential information and trade secrets. Such activities may include but are not limited to monitoring access to information & computer systems, e-mail usage, and network activity to spot and pin down suspicious and/or unauthorized activities.
In the previous blog under this series, we provided you with 4 key aspects of information security measures that employers should consider in order to reduce the risk of trade secret and confidential information loss or misappropriation. Under one of them, we said that by overriding any access codes or passwords connected to employee’s e-mail accounts or work devices and having express access to such e-mail accounts and work devices, employers should also reserve the right to search, investigate, and/or inspect employee’s messages, voicemail, and/or files in addition to these requirements and restrictions.
To emphasize this point, it is crucial that while signing an employment agreement, entering into confidentiality/non-disclosure covenants, or agreeing on the usage of computers and other technological devices with their employees, employers should ensure that the former understands that they retain the right search, investigate, and/or inspect with regards to policies on reviewing, deleting, auditing, accessing, storing, and recording any information such as non-business spreadsheets, instant messages, voicemail, e-mail, and word processing documents stored on their computer systems. When the need arises, an employer can effectively and consistently monitor and ensure that confidential information or trade secrets are secure by retaining such rights.
Furthermore, it is critical for employers to ensure that their own systems are monitored to keep their software & technology updated and to spot vulnerabilities and areas requiring improvements. To increase the chances that an employer can fend off hackers and/or malware attacks, it is important to ensure that network and computer systems are up to date. It goes without saying that the proactive engagement of cybersecurity and information security consultants and experts is critical in the maintenance, implementation, improvement, and development of data security plans.
In Part VI of this series, we shall move the discussion forward and enlighten you about “Taking Advantage of Technology Related to Information & Network Protection,” which is the second initiative among several “Vital Cybersecurity Initiatives that Employers Should Take” as part of taking reasonable steps in protecting their trade secrets and confidential information.
In the meantime, stay tuned for more legal guidance, training, and education. In the interim, if there are any questions or comments, please let us know at the Contact Us page!
Always rising above the bar,
Isaac T.,
Legal Writer & Author.