What is the Security Threat?

The ubiquity of electronic communications has enabled significantly greater interaction and information exchange between organizations and their customers, partners, vendors and other constituents.

While this has made employees increasingly more productive, it also has increased risk. Without proper information controls, organizations are exposed to accidental or intentional data leaks and intellectual property theft. Beyond simple embarrassment, these events can damage a company’s brand, harm customer relationships, and erase competitive advantage.

What’s more, if employees’ or customers’ personal and financial information are exposed, the company is subject to substantial fines and penalties due to regulatory non-compliance.

Recent Content Security Breaches Include:

A PDF document revealed Whole Foods competitive strategy inadvertently
An apparent split within the UK government over new hard-line anti-terror laws was revealed in hidden comments in a Word Document
A "nonpartisan" Social Security document had edits from a (Republican) White House staffer before submittal. Democrats and unions cry foul.
A mutual fund firm inadvertently disclosed confidential shareholder information in a PDF-formatted public filing. Shareholders are filing data privacy lawsuits.
The Pentagon revealed classified information in a PDF (Portable Document Format) about an Italian secret service agent's death in Iraq.
A document with a list of HIV patients was attached to a public health department e-mail. HIPAA enforcers are investigating the breach in personal data privacy and security.

Workshare software helps organizations exchange content and implement internal controls to protect data:

Enforce usage policies that control content
Stop out-bound email that contains financial or other sensitive information
Alert end users to policy violations
Enable companies to define rules for content control and protection
Provide audit reports of content changes
Support compliance activities without changing the way users work

Only Workshare educates and alerts users of policy violations, blocks content where necessary, and empowers users to correct the problem when appropriate.

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