What to protect against

• Competitors surveilling your communication
  Today, competitive and industrial espionage are daily business. Part of this business is employing technical and human means to find out what other market participants are doing, what they are interested in, and with whom they communicate. This information is freely available or easy to procure via illegal means. Since all unprotected traffic on the Internet can be associated with its origin - even surfing to websites - searching through Google, sending email and using instant messaging or VoIP can - and will - give away critical information about the motives your communications.
  
  
• Insecure mobile communication environments
  Mobile Internet access via public Hotspots, hotel networks or LANs of partners or customers is one of the most dangerous, but necessary, practices of mobile workers. These methods make the user vulnerable to low-cost attacks, to get access to communication details as well as leaking valuable information on critical security details of enterprise networks.
  
  
• Mandatory data retention by telecom providers
  All over the European Union and in many other countries, mandatory data retention laws are in effect. Massive databases of connection details - of everyone using modern means of communication - reach back several months or even years. These are now available to law enforcement and intelligence agencies, often even crossing borders due to multi-lateral assistance agreements. Since economic espionage is now in the primary repertoire of intelligence services, and since misdirected investigations are not uncommon, these masses of data constitute an enormous risk for any globally-active economic organization. Adding the problem of corruption and illegal data leakage due to hacking and theft greatly increases the probability that this data is used in unintended, destructive ways.
  
  
• Unwarranted access to telecom operations
  All over the world information about unwarranted access to critical telecom back-end systems and operations by law enforcement, intelligence agencies, private data collectors and hackers enters the news and industry publications. Massive "vacuum cleaner" data gathering operations, both by public and private entities, are a serious risk to confidential communication, especially with today's low cost data mining technology.
  
  
• Illegal behavior by employees
  Surfing illegal porn sites, illegal file sharing and committing fraud employing company resources and networks can easily cause investigations of the employer. This leads to bad press and often raids or seizures. These events can result in tremendous cost and even endanger critical operation.
  
  
• Misdirected investigations
  Digital evidence is easy to forge and hard to refute. Attempts to direct investigations by law enforcement against personal and economic enemies are a common practice - in most cases leading to enormous damages to the target.
  
  
• Blackmail and corruption
  Internet Service Providers and other telecom companies have total access to all communication content and details. They are the central nexus of today's digital society - a central point with increasingly valuable data. Using blackmail and corruption, organized crime and unscrupulous competitors get access to key administrators and critical customer data, or even to mandatory data retention databases.
  
  
• Lost and stolen data
  Lost and stolen data make the news almost weekly although only the tip of the iceberg reaches public attention. This data includes not only customer databases but often correspondence, critical system access credentials and transaction records.