This IDC study explores and analyzes the risks of insider theft of intellectual property. Insider theft of intellectual property occurs when an enterprise's authorized personnel pass intellectual assets to unauthorized parties. This includes espionage, theft of confidential scientific data, leaking of proprietary formulas, sharing of secure customer information, disclosure of secret formulas, and transmission of proprietary engineering designs.

Technical means should be used only for diagnostic purposes. They cannot serve as exclusive countermeasures to prevent insider theft of intellectual property. "The interception of illegal transmission of intellectual property requires identification, tracing, and intervention by counterintelligence personnel. The prevention of intellectual property theft is costly because it involves the use of methods that differ from the common practices that CIOs usually use," according to Paul Strassman, adjunct analyst, IDC Research Network.