When we think of what special protection Board Members or CEO´s need, most of us will draw a blank. We’ve all been on some kind of board before … be it a club, school or anything like that, and usually that’s all there is to it.
However, that obviously can’t be compared to say, the CEO of Microsoft or BMW or Henkel or Google or Facebook or Daimler, it’s quite different. Personal security, bodyguards and armoured cars aside, there is another often forgotten about area of security and protection. While personal protection is obviously very important, from the viewpoint of the company, there is something else, just as important … the protection of confidential information, classified data and intellectual property.
So, when a big company draws up protection strategies for its corporate board members, or rather, has a security firm do so, this particular topic will feature rather heavily. After all, companies, especially in say, the technology sector have to trust their employees to treat their data smartly. Obviously, if an employee wasn’t trusted, they wouldn’t be allowed to advance to the position of Board member in the first place, however accidents happen.
Files get lost, briefcases are forgotten, and laptops are stolen. There is nothing anyone can do to completely eliminate any chance of that happening, after all, humans aren’t perfect, however they can make sure to minimize and contain the damage done by having a good protection strategy. Step one for that is to not let employees take home any kind of hardcopy of data, print-outs or anything like that.
For electronic data, the measures need to be a bit more sophisticated as it is much harder to prevent someone from carrying out, even accidentally, a file on their laptop. Company laptops and very sophisticated security services come into play here. The standard password protection has long since ceased to be enough. Nowadays, facial recognition, fingerprint scanners and voice pattern recognition systems are used to protect even the seemingly most mundane offices and computers in large corporate offices, as there is no such thing as too much security.
Employees will also be tested by metal scanners and bug devices before going into important and confidential meetings as corporate espionage is growing ever more sophisticated too, along with the protection devices and measures against it. The fake spy pen that makes for a nice laugh in a movie can be a threat to companies worth billions-though in the real world it wouldn’t be shaped like a pen of course.
