Strider’s Shield Flags Corporate IP Theft Attempt
Overview
Our client is a Fortune 500 company that produces a variety of industrial products using patented manufacturing processes for a wide range of industries.
This company implements Shield into their security protocol. Shield is a Strider product that provides a dynamic collection of data connected to known state-sponsored actors. It can be integrated directly into a company’s existing security capabilities and is used to flag any high-risk emails or other communication attempts. With insights provided by Shield, the company’s information security team successfully identified and responded to a state-sponsored IP theft attempt relating to an industry product for major telecommunication devices.
A flagged email
In 2022, the company received a resignation letter from one of its leading researchers. The letter stated that the departing employee would leave the company in 30 days to focus on helping their family in China.
Per standard security protocol for departing employees, the security team enhanced monitoring of the employee’s devices and activities. Shortly after the enhanced monitoring began, Shield alerted the security team about an email between the employee and the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), the national academy of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) for natural sciences. CAS develops similar technologies and capabilities as our client. In the email, CAS confirmed that the employee had access to a specific patented manufacturing process. The security team immediately opened an investigation.
Digging Deeper
The investigation showed that a highly sensitive document had been exfiltrated from the employee’s computer shortly before their last trip to see their family in China. It also revealed that the employee had personally met with representatives of CAS. These findings ultimately led the company to terminate employment and pursue legal action. The security team also increased monitoring of the employee’s research team and security for the targeted manufacturing process.
Conclusion
Shield’s ability to identify communication from entities with known ties to the PRC allowed the company to mitigate a theft attempt before it grew into a more serious issue, and positioned our client to more proactively secure their intellectual property.
Learn more about Shield
Shield effectively identifies and monitors attempts by state-sponsored actors to communicate with your employees. Enrich your current security measures with thousands of proprietary risk terms that are directly tied to known actors. Request a demo today.
