Confidential information is sensitive data valued by the company and which must be protected against unauthorized access or disclosure. Only authorized persons must have access to confidential information.
In practice, legal, organizational and technical measures or its combination are used to protect confidential information, the most common of which are:
- The protection of the company's intellectual property is included in contracts with employees
- In contracts with suppliers and business partners, the protection of confidential information is in the form of an NDA
- Access control to information is a natural part of company processes
- The company protects confidential information using various technical means (e.g. encryption)
Why should confidential information be protected?
Confidential information is an organization's most valuable information assets. Their loss or disclosure can result in great financial damage, loss of business position on the market, and in an extreme situation, the existence of the company as such can be threatened.
Examples of confidential information
- Login details, credentials and passwords
- Company know-how, technological procedures, recipes, source code, etc
- Intellectual property rights (copyright, patents, etc.)
- Strategic plans
- Financial data
- Business information, price lists, calculation formulas
How to protect your confidential information?
- by legal measures - for example, using NDA, confidentiality agreements, using intellectual property protection, and the like
- organizational measures and means - access control, limiting access to information, managing access rights
- technical measures and tools - for example, software enforcing access right, user monitoring software, using encryption of storage