When you suspect an employee of intellectual asset theft, it may already be too late. Geoffrey Minx, the rising young star and top sales executive with Pharma Software, Inc., wrapped up a long day at the office by polishing off a few last emails and calling it a night. He packed up his laptop, loaded some papers into his briefcase and nodded to the security guard at the front desk on his way out. The proximity card reader picked up his ID at the door as well as the asset tag on his laptop, made the match between user and equipment and authorized his exit. Neither the proximity reader nor the security cameras detected the compact discs in his coat pocket, or for that matter the PDA in his briefcase.
Minx resigned his position with Pharma the very next day, reportedly to “pursue other business opportunities.” He turned in his laptop and other equipment, surrendered his access card and had his remote access rights terminated. Within one week, Minx had started a competing business with a backlog of new sales—many of them former Pharma customers. His engineers were hard at work making modifications to Pharma’s source code, and within the month would have a saleable, rival product on the market. In short, Pharma had been cleaned out.