We are in a new age of a pandemic that affects not only health, but economics. Over 30 million people are out of work. When people return to work, they may have a different attitude towards their employer in connection with how their employer treated them during the pandemic. As the economy recovers, there may be opportunities for the employee to move to another company and take along with him or her trade secrets, customer lists, and other important data.
For aviation and airport operations, which are industries that are simultaneously agile, mobile and technical, combined with being especially hard-hit by the economic downturn, higher costs of operations and high levels of furloughs, the issue of misappropriation of company data is an important consideration.
Therefore, employers in these industries would be well-advised to take additional and specific actions to guard against potential employee misappropriation of company data to protect their business.
The following article discusses this issue and ways to protect your operations from this potential threat.
A recent survey indicated that insiders use information to obtain new jobs, start their own business, or for revenge. People are worried about their jobs and they look to use the information of their employer to find new ones. The survey showed that six out of every ten employees steal company data when they lose their job.
Of those: 65 percent took e-mail lists; 45 percent took non-financial business information; 39 percent took customer information, including contact lists; 35 percent took employee records; and 16 percent took financial information.
About 61 percent took data as paper documents or hard files, 53 percent burned the information onto a CD or DVD, and 42 percent downloaded it onto a USB memory stick.
The volatility of useful electronic evidence should always be of utmost importance to any business. It is vitally important to identify every computer device, cell phone or PDA, external media device, such as USB thumb drives, CDs and e-mail accounts and quarantine all of them until a computer forensic professional can be scheduled to preserve the electronic data for future examination. All too often, employers make the mistake of redeploying an ex-employee’s computer and communication devices to other employees, only making any future examination efforts more difficult. It is a good practice for a business to refrain from conducting any investigation on their own which may lead to tainting the evidence.
Worsening economic times create opportunities for rival companies to poach employees from a weakened competitor. Employers must aggressively protect trade secrets. Employees in worsening economic times may feel the need to switch companies to head off a potential job loss. If an employee is subject to a non-compete or non-solicitation agreement, the employer may have adequate protection. However, where there are no such agreements, employers are at a high risk to have trade secrets and confidential information depart with a key employee.
What can an employer do?
1. Keep a watchful eye on key indicators as to whether an employee is getting ready to leave.
2. If an employee makes an unusual request to meet with clients, that may be a sign that he is planning to leave with those clients.
3. Late night e-mail/system access. This may be a potential sign that an employee might be downloading sensitive databases or electronic information.
4. An unusual request for confidential information.
What steps can an employer take?
1. Limit access to highly sensitive material.
2. Set up a computer system to prevent flash drive use.
3. Use confidentiality agreements and restrictive covenants.
4. If an employee resigns, immediately eliminate access to emails and computer systems. Conduct a comprehensive exit interview with the employee as soon as possible. During such an interview, remind the employee of any post-employment covenants. Demand that all information be returned, as well as Blackberrys and other employer-owned devices.
5. If you discover a violation, resist self-help and do not allow in-house people to review the employee's computer; they may not be knowledgeable enough to use forensically sound methods.
6. If an employee leaves, preserve his or her computer and all other employer issued devices such as cell phones, PDAs, flash drives, etc. You should save all emails which may contain damaging admissions.
As the economy and travel begin to slowly open back up, so do the job markets. It’s now increasingly important to review and implement these guidelines as employees access a more fluid job market in the aviation and airport operations industries to ensure you’re protecting your trade secrets.
Ronald B. Goodman is chairman of the Litigation & Dispute Resolution Department at the New York City-based law firm Robinson Brog, where he has practiced as a corporate litigation attorney since 1987. He may be reached at [email protected] or (212) 603-6313.
Daniel E. Kelly is an associate practicing in the field of commercial litigation with the Litigation & Dispute Resolution Department at the New York City-based law firm Robinson Brog. He may be reached at [email protected] or (212) 603-6347.
