The bidding process for a construction project includes a vast array of folks: estimators, owners, project managers, design professionals and many others. Security, especially cybersecurity, can prove a challenge, and those receiving, drafting or issuing bids would be wise to consider potential problems before they become a reality. This can be accomplished by establishing and maintaining standards and protocols to protect your work product. These protocols can cover elements including accessibility, document protections, review processes and fundamental security protections such as passwords. Here are five essential steps parties should enact to guard their proprietary bidding information:
- Limit accessibility to services that provide portals where new projects are presented for bid and require log-on criteria to access the portal. These limitations are the building blocks for good security. Safeguarding access to the portals—and minimizing the number of people who have access—is a simple and practical approach that can and should be used from the initiation of the services.
- Require any employee with access to bid requests to sign an NDA. NDAs are imperative to protecting data and can be valuable tools for doing so, assuming they are well-written and address the particulars of what employees and former employees cannot disclose.
- Require any and all employees to work full-time and prohibit “moonlighting” for other contractors. One potential area for leaks comes from employees working for competitors. Policies prohibiting such overlap head off such issues before they occur.
- Review incoming and sent emails/items from those employees that issue bids. Regular examinations of such communications can help the reviewers proactively spot and address possible issues.
- Keep access to bidding pro-forma documents limited and password protected. Similar to the first point, limiting access, especially to important documents, and using strong passwords, are sensible methods for strengthening security.
While there may not be any one way to protect bid formulations and processes fully, taking the above steps will significantly mitigate risk. Consistent, well-implemented and written requirements may also be useful if controversy arises, so parties should consult with their counsel to ensure their procedures are up-to-date and clearly documented.
