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 create 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 X of our series on “Cybersecurity Measures to Protect Employers.” In Part IX, we provided you with a hands-on guide on “Implementation of a Need-to-Know Access Policy,” the fifth cybersecurity initiative that an employer may take as part of taking reasonable measures to protect confidential information and trade secrets. As we continue to explore other key cybersecurity initiatives, we have provided you, in this short blog and Part X of the series, with key information on “Using Unique & Individualized Log-in Credentials & Passwords,” which is the fourth cybersecurity initiative that every employer should take pursuant to the same goal.

Using Unique & Individualized Log-in Credentials & Passwords

In order to ensure that the secrecy of confidential information is maintained, employers must have a strategy in place to ensure that such information is only accessed by authorized persons, especially since most of it is kept in computer systems or programs. An example of such a strategy is to assign unique and individualized login credentials to employees authorized to access confidential information. Through such a strategy, an employer may convince a court that they took reasonable steps in protecting their trade secrets and confidential information.

Another example is the use of passwords. Generally, although it is a basic and crucial measure, the use of passwords to control how and who has access to and can use confidential information may not be considered a “reasonable step” in protecting such information. However, irrespective of this drawback, employers may implement password-protection policies to enhance the likelihood that the use of passwords constitutes a reasonable step in protecting trade secrets and confidential information. For instance, an employer may require minimum recycling and strength requirements for passwords to be met and have employees change their passwords periodically.

Ideally, an employer may make it hard for an authorized individual to guess passwords by requiring strength requirements to be met. Furthermore, to prevent an authorized individual from accessing a password, one may have an added layer of protection by requiring passwords to meet recycling requirements. Again, implementing such password-protection policies may constitute reasonable steps in protecting their trade secrets and confidential information.

In Part XI, we shall move the discussion forward by hammering on the “Individual Responsibility for Trade Secret Oversight in a Business,” which is the sixth consideration among several “Vital Cybersecurity Initiatives that Employers Should Take” as part of taking reasonable steps in protecting their trade secrets and confidential information.

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.