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 Part III of our series on “Cybersecurity Measures to Protect Employers.” In Part II of this series, we provided you with Statutory Definitions & Types of Information Comprising Trade Secrets. In this blog and Part III of the series, we have provided you, as the employer, with key preliminary steps that should be considered as part of reinforcing your cybersecurity program.

Key Preliminary Steps for Reinforcing an Employer’s Cybersecurity Program

An employer should consider several preliminary steps in order to reinforce their cybersecurity program. Several of these steps are discussed below.

1. Establish Information Confidentiality & Security Policies

Since they may constitute notice to employees, policies comprise a critical step in ensuring that the secrecy of confidential information is maintained. Such policies should be designed to prohibit employees from accessing or using confidential information without appropriate authorization. Following such policies, employees should not install, delete, remove, alter, duplicate, or download programs, passwords, files, or data without prior written authorization from the person(s), personnel, or department(s) in charge of ensuring the security and safety of the employer’s confidential information. The policies should make it clear that employees should not reveal passwords or share accounts because such employees are permitted to access certain confidential information through unique and individualized credentials.

The law requires employers to have written policies governing confidentiality and trade secrets, failure to which courts have denied affording trade secret protection to employers who have not done that. Further, employers are required to have developed practices, policies, and precautions in place governing how confidential data and information is shared with third parties.

2. Have Employees Sign Confidentiality Agreements

Also known as non-disclosure agreements, confidentiality agreements set forth the consequences of violating the employer’s confidentiality policy, the employer’s policy against disclosure or improper use of such information, and the types of information the employer considers confidential. An employer may use a conspicuous post or provide employees with a stand-alone policy issued with onboarding or new-hire paperwork, an employee handbook, or a non-disclosure agreement to ensure employees have and are aware of the confidentiality agreement. These agreements act may be viewed by counsel as employees’ consent and notice to the employer’s confidentiality policy. Accordingly, such agreements can be used in court to demonstrate that an employer took reasonable steps in protecting their trade secrets and confidential information.

3. Ensure Newly Hired Employees are Aware of Policies on Trade Secrets & Confidential Information

Right at the onset of their employment, all newly hired employees should be informed that, immediately after starting or in the course of their employment, they would have access and ability to use confidential information. Still, they should be informed that set policies govern such access and use. Accordingly, an employer should have guidelines on the category or categories of confidential information accessible to different employees. To do this, an employer should provide an employee with notice and, in turn, the latter should acknowledge the receipt of the same. Because it would be implausible for an employee to claim that they were not aware that such confidential information existed and are bound to the policies governing access and use, such a notice serves to protect against the misappropriation of trade secrets and unauthorized access and use of confidential information.

In Part III of this new series, we shall move the discussion forward and provide you with a hands-on guide on “Reducing Trade Secret Misappropriation/Loss Risks: Key Policies.”

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.