We sat down with Troy Batterberry, CEO and co-founder of EchoMark, to delve into the critical issues of data leaks, and the future of data security in a rapidly evolving digital landscape. As organizations grapple with the growing threats posed by insiders and the limitations of traditional cybersecurity measures, we discuss how embedding invisible forensic watermarks is changing the game in protecting sensitive information.
What are the dangers of data leaks for organizations?
People who leak or steal information harm the organization’s brand, employee morale, ongoing information flow, and customer trust. Collectively, this also damages leadership effectiveness. This alone results in tremendous damage. However, it’s worth pointing out that people who leak information are also typically sabotaging other aspects of the organization, resulting in significant damage well beyond the fallout of the visible leak. To add insult to injury, organizations are literally paying these saboteurs as employees!
Over 90% of the world’s organizations are completely unprepared for the risks imposed by insiders. Furthermore, these threats are growing in frequency by nearly 50% each year, and the scope of the damage for a single event is growing as well. Insiders already have access to an organization’s most valuable assets, including customer information, intellectual property, trade secrets, etc. Simply put, insiders inherently know what is valuable, and they can access it. Unfortunately, their theft or leakage can even become an “extinction event” for an organization.
EchoMark can easily help you find these saboteurs within your organization at a tiny, single digit percentage fraction of the costs incurred.
How does EchoMark's AI-driven solution for embedding invisible forensic watermarks in emails and documents differentiate itself from existing cybersecurity measures in the market?
EchoMark is truly unique. Simply no other solution can protect against the “analog hole” where content is leaked using a personal phone camera, which is the predominant way that information is now leaked. People who leak using their personal device (without any organization software monitoring their behavior) know they won’t get caught unless something changes. EchoMark changes the game and can bring back trust to communications.
You mentioned that EchoMark's technology could have confidently identified the source of the Dobbs leak within five minutes. Can you elaborate on how EchoMark's solution achieves such rapid and accurate source identification, especially in cases of document alterations?
EchoMark sprinkles thousands of subtle marks that are invisible to the human eye on each page of information. Think of these marks as forming the basis of a hidden fingerprint. If even a small portion of a page is leaked, EchoMark can find that hidden unique and traceable “fingerprint” and quickly identify the source.
EchoMark's seamless integration with major email systems and its ability to deploy protection without interrupting operations sounds promising. How does this ease of deployment compare with other data security solutions available to organizations?
No other data security solution is easier to deploy across an organization. It can be installed in minutes and can scale to organizations comprised of millions of users.
EchoMark does not require any participation or even awareness from end users, meaning no end user training is required. Unlike many other systems, EchoMark requires ZERO client software. Unlike Digital Rights Management, it does not get in the way of any legitimate communications or activities, so there is no end user backlash either.
EchoMark's approach to tailoring privacy settings for diverse cohorts and use cases seems flexible. How does the customization of privacy settings contribute to effective communication while still ensuring robust data protection?
Many of our customers start out choosing specific communications to protect with EchoMark. We offer highly customizable policies to protect documents and email including customizations based on the user, the type of content, where it is sent, etc. This helps the organization roll out EchoMark and ensure they do not disrupt activities. However, as they continue to utilize EchoMark without any issues, they typically come to the conclusion of, “Why not protect everything? Shouldn’t all our communications remain private?”
It reminds me of a similar situation many years ago. When the world wide web was really immature, most websites did not use encryption (via HTTPS). Over time, developers and administrators had to decide which web traffic merited added privacy through the use of encryption. The conclusion the market came to over time was to “protect everything.” Today, nearly all web browsing traffic is protected through encryption. We see the same evolution happening with EchoMark.