Open Market, Security Lockdown
Information security has always been an issue for companies, but now, as company processes become increasingly automated, many would argue that sensitive and competitive information is more vulnerable than it's ever been.
[From iSource Business, June 2001] Forget the annual report. A better way to see where a company is headed is a surreptitious look at its legal bills. Is it planning on going public? Is it merging with another firm or forming a joint venture? Is it bracing for a possible class action suit? Is it about to patent a revolutionary new product design? Gaining access to this information may violate any number of legal statutes, but it's pure gold to a competitor, not to mention shareholders or the media if you are big enough and public enough, like the United Parcel Service.
So when UPS decided to invest in a system that would automate, aggregate and analyze the information in the invoices that are sent from the 50 or so global law firms handling its affairs, executives placed security high on the list of selection criteria.
