Twenty percent of companies have had tradesecrets stolen, according to a report recently released byBaker McKenzie.

The report,“The Rising Importance of Safeguarding Trade Secrets,” also showedthat many companies may not be prepared to respond to this problem.Just under a third of companies surveyed have procedures in placeto respond to the threat of or actual theft of trade secrets.

“In our digital age, it is more challenging than ever to keep asecret,” Paul Rawlinson, global chair at Baker McKenzie, wrote inthe report. “Nearly everything it seems ends up on socialmedia.”

Eighty-two percent of respondents said tradesecrets are an important, often essential, part of theirbusinesses, according to the report.

Rawlinson added: “Today's trade secrets are more susceptible tothe threat of being hacked or downloaded, but they are of no lessvalue to the companies that own them … Nearly half of the 400senior executives in our survey said their trade secrets are moreimportant than their patents and trademarks.”

The most targeted industry for theft, the survey found, washealth care, with 33% of executives reporting theft of tradesecrets in that sector. Health care was followed by industrials at18% and information, communication and technology at 17%.

As for who employers are worried could be responsible for tradesecret theft, 32% of respondents said they feared having tradesecrets stolen by former employees, another 28% fear suppliers,consultants and other third parties would steal trade secrets.Twenty percent pointed to current employees, while 15% areconcerned that rogue or state sponsored cybercriminals or hackersmay steal their secrets.

Of survey respondents, 69% foresee trade secret protectionbecoming more critical than safeguarding other types ofintellectual property given how quickly innovation is occurring intechnology.

“Unlike patents and other forms of intellectual property, it'smuch more difficult, if not impossible, to put the genie back inthe bottle once a trade secret has become public,” Rawlinson notedin the report. “That makes it even more crucial for board-levelexecutives to better understand the threats and manage those risksby taking action.”

According to the report, it is less expensive to protect tradesecrets compared to other types of IP protection because tradesecrets do not have to be registered with the government.

“Preserving trade secrets requires that companies inventorytheir trade secrets, limit the number of people who know theinformation, develop technical controls to protect their tradesecrets and train employees on the importance of trade secrets,”the report stated. “They must also test their controls andimplement action plans for responding to threats and actualtheft.”

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