CAD data and intellectual property are valuable assets that need to be protected from unauthorized access, theft, or tampering. In this article, you will learn some best practices and tips on how to secure your CAD data and intellectual property, whether you work on your own or in a team.
One of the simplest and most effective ways to secure your CAD data and intellectual property is to use encryption and passwords. Encryption is a process that converts your data into a code that can only be deciphered by authorized parties. Passwords are keys that unlock your encrypted data. You can use encryption and passwords to protect your CAD files, folders, drives, or cloud storage. Make sure you use strong and unique passwords that are not easy to guess or crack. You can also use password managers or biometric authentication to enhance your security.
Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineer in Field of Research And Development Engineering
Working on external server with a back up and high security. Also working from sub account on the computer. Restriction on the websites we visit and etc.
Securing CAD data and intellectual property is vital. Use encryption, strong passwords, access control, and backups. Follow industry standards and educate yourself and your team. Use reliable software and hardware, and regularly monitor and review security measures. Protecting your CAD data and intellectual property is crucial for safeguarding valuable assets.
Often this is effective only until someone copies the file and shares it without the encryption. As soon as this happens the previous encryption has no more effect.
Another way to secure your CAD data and intellectual property is to implement access control and backup. Access control is a system that regulates who can view, edit, copy, or share your CAD data and intellectual property. You can use access control to grant or revoke permissions, track changes, or audit logs. Backup is a process that creates a copy of your CAD data and intellectual property in a separate location. You can use backup to prevent data loss, recover from disasters, or restore previous versions. You can use local or cloud-based backup solutions, but make sure you encrypt and password-protect your backups as well.
This is one of the most important steps to take in securing your CAD data, without it many projects have been put on the back foot or lost completely.
Personally, I often ensure that data can't be downloaded from my system. Most projects I oversee, the access is given to specific person and it's only lookable and can't be downloaded. Most of my work plans and project documents are shared but can't be downloaded. If am allowing it to be downloaded, I grant access after giving the link to the files in my drive and after the person is done, I restrict the mail from been able to access the file a second time. With this, I don't lose files and can track those given access to each file. Also, if its broken or hacked, my files are often encrypted with passwords which makes it difficult to access except if a top level management staff I gave the pass key enters the key.
A third way to secure your CAD data and intellectual property is to follow industry standards and regulations. Industry standards and regulations are guidelines and rules that govern how you should handle your CAD data and intellectual property. They may vary depending on your sector, country, or project. You can use industry standards and regulations to ensure compliance, quality, and ethics. Some examples of industry standards and regulations are ISO 27001, GDPR, NIST, or ITAR. You can consult with experts, lawyers, or authorities to understand and apply the relevant standards and regulations for your CAD data and intellectual property.
This works very effectively within whatever setting it is used for, an industry or country, for example, can regulate the use of data within the standards they provide. When the data is used outside of this framework, the regulations have little to no effect in governing data security,
Your company's policies and guidelines can offer a roadmap for securing your CAD data. In addition, your company's data security compliance office can be there to assist you in asking questions regarding sensitive data, and the right measures to take while engaging in business activities such as presenting material to a client, and traveling with sensitive data on your laptop or an external storage device like a usb security flash drive.
A fourth way to secure your CAD data and intellectual property is to educate yourself and your team. Education is a process that increases your awareness, knowledge, and skills on how to secure your CAD data and intellectual property. You can educate yourself and your team by reading articles, books, or blogs, taking courses or webinars, or attending events or workshops. You can also create or follow policies, procedures, or protocols that outline how to secure your CAD data and intellectual property. You can educate yourself and your team to prevent mistakes, breaches, or disputes.
Often this is an overlooked and under-utilised area that can be very effective, we often don’t retire much education of younger professionals in the software used as they have some intuition with technology and there are numerous sources of information available to teach them. Some areas do require more careful teaching, however, and these need to be identified.
Use master and working folders for the project as well as for each member of the team. Master and working folders of the project shall be located in a server or a cloud, or other means of file system. Team members master and working folders shall be located in each member personal computer. Each member is downloading from project working folders to their working folders. After finishing a CAD work the member copies the work to its master folder and use email or upload to project working folder. The project manager or leader respansible for project working folder transfers the work to checkers and approvers. Finally the work can be transfered to project master folder.
In general, when building a team, it is very important (or at least for me) to draw some general boundaries within which each member will be active. The team leader has 2 options: to get involved in this team and work with it, or to stay apart and do a supervisory activity. When I was a design technician for map vectorization, I had a team leader who was responsible for the job. He was the one who divided the work tasks into pieces in the project. At the end, he took all the drawings and information from each member of the team and put them together, hean "assembled" the project. This way, it was very difficult to get the information from all the team members and to assemble the project yourself in order to distribute it further.
A fifth way to secure your CAD data and intellectual property is to use reliable software and hardware. Software and hardware are the tools and devices that you use to create, store, or transmit your CAD data and intellectual property. You can use reliable software and hardware to avoid errors, bugs, or vulnerabilities. You can choose software and hardware that have security features, updates, or support. You can also use antivirus, firewall, or VPN software to protect your software and hardware from malware, hackers, or snooping.
I’m sufficiently advanced hardware and software is not often a cause of CAD insecurity, if one used standard practices to interface between softwares and systems, but it can cause corruption to files and loss of data.
"It's paramount to emphasize the significance of using legitimate software. While cost savings can be tempting, resorting to questionable software puts your entire network at risk of potential security breaches. Moreover, clients often have the means to verify software authenticity, and resorting to unauthorized versions can harm your reputation and jeopardize contracts."
A sixth way to secure your CAD data and intellectual property is to monitor and review your security. Monitoring and reviewing are the actions that you take to check, measure, or evaluate your security. You can monitor and review your security by using tools, reports, or feedback. You can also conduct audits, tests, or assessments to identify and fix any issues or gaps. You can monitor and review your security to improve, optimize, or adapt your security.
"It's advisable to choose a supplier who can handle this aspect, as it is more cost-effective than maintaining a dedicated in-house team or department with 2-3 personnel. Seek out a trustworthy company for your needs. Even when using cloud-based software, having a contract with a software and network security professional is a wise move."
When you need to send CAD Models to clients who will be implementing your product, it is always a good idea to have redacted versions of your CAD model that you can send over. You can also create HTML viewing files for your CAD Models, which you can set up to only allow the client to view the model. This way you can further protect your Intellectual property.
I always make backups in External memories In these way you can always be sure that your data are safe and you can use them wherever you want