Passwords Alone Don't Protect Trade Secrets
A court ruled that simply password-protecting a file isn’t enough to make it a trade secret.
To establish that information is a trade secret under the ITSA, two requirements must be met: (1) the plaintiff must show the information was sufficiently secret to give the plaintiff a competitive advantage, and (2) the plaintiff must show that it took affirmative measures to prevent others from acquiring or using the information. Although the court determined in this case that the customer lists met the first requirement, it denied trade secret protection based on the second requirement.
The court held that “[r]estricting access to sensitive information by assigning employees passwords on a need-to-know basis is a step in the right direction.” This precaution in and of itself, however was not enough. The court was “troubled by the failure to either require employees to sign confidentiality agreements, advise employees that its records were confidential, or label the information as confidential.” There was insufficient evidence in the record to show the employees understood the information to be confidential, thus the trial court’s finding that the customer lists were not trade secrets was not against the manifest weight of the evidence.
Israel Torres • April 14, 2005 1:14 PM
If something is a trade secret you pretty much need to make sure it stays secret. Since we all know passwords can be broken over time by various attacks, it would hardly seem an adequate form of protection for something that is a cornerstone of survival to any entity.
Israel Torres