Intellectual Property Theft
Intellectual property theft occurs when an insider copies, removes, retains, transfers, or uses protected business, technical, scientific, or creative information without authorization.
Incident Case Analysis & Real-World Context
Case basis: Based on real event. A former DuPont employee admitted to stealing and misappropriating DuPont trade secrets after accepting an offer from a smaller competitor. The case illustrates a common leaver-risk pattern: a trusted employee with access to valuable technical or business information transitions toward another opportunity and moves protected information before, during, or after departure.
Why This Event Pattern Matters
IP theft cases matter because the harm may not be visible immediately. The organization may still possess the data, while losing exclusivity, competitive advantage, trade-secret protection, or negotiation leverage.
Common Event Scenarios & Progression Path
Access to high-value technical, commercial, or strategic information.
Career transition, competitor opportunity, or new venture context.
Unusual downloads, file collection, email forwarding, repository cloning, printing, or personal cloud synchronization.
Need to prove protectability, access, movement, retention, and possible use.
IRCF™ Capability Alignment
Lessons from this event pattern directly map to the following canonical Insider Risk Capability Framework™ (IRCF™) components for organizational capability improvement:
Insider Threat Matrix Alignment
Matrix mapping includes preparation through file exploration and staging, infringement through exfiltration or unauthorized retention, and anti-forensics through deletion or concealment.
Controls & Safeguards to Leverage
Relevant Program Metrics & KPIs
Legal, Privacy, and Ethical Cautions
IP theft can involve trade-secret law, confidentiality obligations, employment agreements, computer-access law, discovery, privacy, and cross-border investigation. State facts carefully and preserve evidence early.
Source References & Investigation Fact-Verification
Related BoK Hub Reference Pages
Operationalize This Learning
Need to evaluate whether this scenario is covered in your environment? Use RiskTKO® or request a Guided Exposure Assessment to evaluate your current control coverage, capability maturity, and exposure trends.