The risk of disclosure of sensitive business information significantly increases with more employees working remotely due to COVID-19 as information is accessed outside the office.
Employers should have policies for use of company computer systems and emails, limiting and/or controlling access to the company’s confidential documents and information. Employees should be reminded of those policies, particularly those that apply to remote work. For example:
- Employees should only use secured remote access to access company networks;
- they should continue to use the employer’s document management systems with document check-out and check-in;
- they should avoid file transfer to their personal devices; and
- they should use company email accounts to conduct company business.
Employers, for their part, should restrict network access for network locations that only certain segments of employees need to use, with appropriate security for those locations.
It is also prudent to reiterate to employees their broader ongoing obligations to maintain confidentiality of the company’s sensitive business information, and to only use company equipment and networks for company business.
Next steps
For further information on trade secrets protection please refer to our Global Trade Secrets Guide 2020 under the related publications link to the right of this text.
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