Risk

What are the risks?

It sounds obvious, but people will only steal your information if it is valuable. If it is valuable to you, it is likely that others will find it valuable too.

A true understanding of risk requires risk management, but the following points should help you decide whether you need to take such a step:

• Is your company involved with the following (or similar) activities:
  • Direct marketing and/or the use of mailing lists
  • Research -for example, engineering, pharmaceuticals, aerospace, IT product development
  • Patents and/or copyright
  • Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)?
• Does your company handle sensitive information that could be sold (for example, to the media) or used as the basis of blackmail (such as medical or financial records)?
• Do you handle plans and itineraries? These could include:
  • Marketing plans
  • Itineraries for VIPs
  • Product launch plans
  • Media programme schedules.

 If you answered YES to any of the above, you probably carry an increased risk of information theft. See our Theft Prevention  page.

If you think you have suffered theft, then you should check Incident Response and Theft Recovery  pages.

If you think there has been a criminal element to the theft, you might also find Forensics, Incident Reporting and Police Sites  useful sources of information.