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OFFICIAL SPONSORS OF THE
AMERICAN REPOSSESSOR Who Is Your Company's Biggest Threat? By David J. Branch I have a friend who owns a small company in a larger city here in the South. Not long ago, he discovered that someone was going thru his trash bin when he rolled it out the night before pick up. He happens to have his office and lot next to another business that has security cameras, one of which also covers the front of his building and trash bin in it's scope. When he asked to see the video from a certain night, he learned it was a longtime employee of a medium sized company that we both worked for at one time. Apparently this guy was dumpster diving to get at any records that would show who his clients are, fee schedules, etc. When we worked together for this larger company, it was not uncommon for us to be told to go by competitor's lots and write down tag numbers on the repo's to get the lien holder info. Information breaches are taking place and are costing companies substantial sums of money. Companies, regardless of their sizes, must address these issues. These risks are only enhanced by the looming recession. Not only are companies more tempted to cheat, but potential victims are less willing to fund counter measures. “User education” is often quick to be abolished. This is a risky move, as security is as strong as its weakest link. Therefore, security precautions should be seen not as a dispensable budget expense. Rather it must be regarded as a business enabler. Congress has attempted to aid companies to protect themselves with the Economic Espionage Act of 1996. The Act permits legal action regarding “financial, business, scientific, engineering, technical and economic information,” if a company can demonstrate it has attempted to keep this information classified and protected. But many companies don’t take advantage of the Act, except as a last resort. When news of the breach is known publicly, a company can safely exploit the law in full knowledge that whatever negative conclusions regarding the company’s reliability are already drawn. However, if the trade secret theft is not publicly known, a company has to closely evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of suing another company (and thereby going public) as news of the theft may damage the company’s reputation. It seems that in this industry, we have enough negative forces working against us. From the professional debtor to the clients that want every service for free. The last thing we should have to worry about is our fellow repossessor, yet unfortunately, we all need to realize that they are our biggest threat of all.
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