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Proprietary isn't always a bad word
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For PC enthusiasts, the word proprietary brings pain and anguish.  For you and your company, proprietary probably means trade secret or business method.  This is one time where you're trying to protect the proprietary stuff.  How do you keep the secrets from escaping when they're but one click of the "attach" button away from being e-mailed around the world?

Again, content filter solutions (like those discussed in the Offensive Content threat) can help.  Unfortunately in this case, it's not nearly so straight forward.  Your company's "secret sauce" might not be just words, but diagrams, source code, binaries, etc.  In this case, content filtering alone won't cut it.  At the very least you'll have to build a fairly comprehensive list of file names, or possibly types.

Of course, any savvy thief will simply rename the files, now what?  In this case, you'll need some type of document management system, and depending on the sensativity of the information you're guarding, you may want a sophisticated system that monitors your network for escaping information.  Commercial tools do exist to keep tabs on your proprietary documents, although the technology hasn't really come into it's prime, yet.  I'm not aware of any Open Source tools to monitor for unapproved trafficing of company material (although if you have way too much spare time, you might be able to cobble something together with Snort).




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