Manufacturing Secrets Can Be Stolen on Flash Drive
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Manufacturing Secrets Can Be Stolen on Flash Drive
A simple flash drive can give away your manufacturing secrets to competitors around the globe, the director of innovation policy for the National Association of Manufacturing warned the fastener industry.
Employees can be bribed by foreign companies or countries to turn over a flash drive that gives away company secrets that once would have filled a truckload, Brian Raymond told a joint session of the National Fastener Distributors Association and Pacific-West Fastener Association. Then a mirror factory somewhere else in the world can begin using the technology that a U.S. manufacturer developed.
“Government action is needed in updating the U.S. Privacy Act,” Raymond declared.
“Digital information flies around the world in a way that was not imaginable 30 years ago,” Raymond said.
Manufacturers have had to learn about cybersecurity and intellectual property theft. E-mails, pricing, business plans, customer information and company strategies are on computers and servers around the world. The manufacturer–customer relationship is built on the trust that strategic secrets will not be shared beyond the partners.
But Raymond is concerned the federal government is signaling its intent to access customer information of U.S.-headquartered manufacturers when that information is stored on servers outside the United States.
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