In most innovation driven industries, it is a fairly common practice to sign a nondisclosure agreement or confidentiality document, when being associated with any organisation that is involved in life sciences, technologies and other such industries. In these sectors, competitiveness and rivalries among like-minded companies is extremely high, which is why it is important that vital intellectual property is safeguarded.
Even though, nondisclosure agreements are commonplace and important, they are not highly effective in keeping information protected. They are mostly set in place to serve as a hinderance and give an organisation a legal alternative in the event that someone illegally makes use or shares the data encompassed under the agreement.
This does not mean that organisations have to get rid of nondisclosure agreements completely. But, they must be employed in conjunction with other safety methods as part of a comprehensive information protection strategy.
Below are some ways in which document security is a better protective system against information theft than a nondisclosure agreement.
Preventative
Some individuals may stay away from disclosing safeguarded or classified data due to the harsh consequences imposed by nondisclosure agreements on failing to keep information secure. However, in some instances, a substantial financial gain may be won, for those willing to share an organisation’s classified data.
Hence, some people may take the risk of disclosing protected information, in the hope that no one will know of it. And, if an organisation has not been protected in a manner that is preventing the sharing of data, it could be very easy for an individual to pass classified data to a third party without being discovered.
On the other hand, if all classified information has to be stored in a highly secure virtual data room mandatorily, the risk of disseminating the information is completely eliminated. Security features in data rooms hinder users from disseminating or downloading classified information unless they have been permitted to do so.
In spite of all the restrictions imposed by a data room, even if an individual does disseminate or download a document, it will be monitored and traced by the administrator. Thus, document security is effective in preventing the inappropriate distribution of information, which is not a feature of a nondisclosure agreement and hence is a far more robust preventative security measure.
Constrictive
In addition to making use of document security through a data room for the safeguarding of classified information located in a protective area, document security also allows an organisation to constrict access and maintain control over its information.
Some organisations may depend on a virtual data room to facilitate the sharing of specific documents among authorised employees, but care should be taken to ensure that sharing capabilities are restricted. With the help of permissions-based roles, administrators will be able to concede and rescind access to secured data in a virtual data room.
This will ascertain that only authorised individuals with prior permission are able to gain access to information in the data room and can only see the contents of documents to which they have been granted limited access. These constrictive measures are definitely much more secure than having employees sign a printed nondisclosure agreement, which can allow for unrestrained access to organisational information.
Author Bio: Carol is a freelance content writer. Currently, she is associated with Locklizard, a document security company. They are a reputed DRM solution provider. For further information visit www.locklizard.com