McAfee and SAIC just released a new report, Underground Economies: Intellectual Capital and Sensitive Corporate Data Now the Latest Cybercrime Currency [PDF], which talks about protecting intellectual capital such as patents, trade secrets, proprietary data, business processes, and marketing plans.
The report indicates a radical shift in the information marketplace, from personal information to corporate intellectual capital as the new primary target.
“Cybercriminals have shifted their focus from physical assets to data driven properties, such as trade secrets or product planning documents,” said Simon Hunt, vice president and chief technology officer, endpoint security at McAfee. “We’ve seen significant attacks targeting this type of information. Sophisticated attacks such as Operation Aurora, and even unsophisticated attacks like Night Dragon, have infiltrated some of the largest, and seemingly most protected corporations in the world. Criminals are targeting corporate intellectual capital and they are often succeeding.”
Insights from the report include:
As you can see, this report delves into areas of data management in a whole new way. It is shocking how companies are finding ways to subvert, or ignore, data breach notification laws and that breaches suffered are not prompting appropriate remediation.