Protecting Intellectual Properties While Enabling Business Agility with R&S®Trusted Gate by Rohde & Schwarz Cybersecurity

Short Summary

Digital Transformation is forcing businesses to operate with greater agility, faster innovation cycles, and broader collaboration across dynamic partner ecosystems, including other companies, governments, and research institutions. Collaboration and information sharing have become standard operating modes, especially in Life Sciences, Pharmaceuticals, and BioTech, where intellectual property and sensitive data (such as clinical trial information) are central to business value. This shift increases exposure because highly valuable information attracts many interested parties, while cyberattacks—often sophisticated and state-driven—continue to rise. At the same time, IT operating models are changing: perimeter-based, internal data center assumptions no longer hold as “cloud first” strategies and remote work normalize new access patterns, data sprawl, and mixed device/network conditions.

To respond, organizations must clearly determine what information requires protection, where controls should be applied (device, network, systems, or directly to the information), and how to implement protection in a risk-based “need to protect” manner. A holistic approach is required, such as the Information Protection Lifecycle (IPLC), which covers information from creation/acquisition through use, sharing, monitoring, recovery, and final disposal. This lifecycle perspective emphasizes that security cannot rely on a single technology; it must be layered and designed to enable business rather than restrict it, including support for mainstream collaboration platforms like Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft Teams.

Rohde & Schwarz Cybersecurity positions its portfolio—application, cloud, endpoint, and network security—around these needs, with R&S Trusted Gate highlighted as a key capability for high-risk scenarios. Trusted Gate dynamically encrypts and fragments documents into distributed storage while retaining searchability, leaving only metadata in the original collaboration system and enforcing document-level access control. An action plan for IPLC implementation includes asset assessment and classification, access control, encryption and secure storage, monitoring and detection, containment and recovery, deception, and disciplined disposal, supported by structured vendor selection and proof-of-concept validation.

Interesting Facts

• Collaboration and sharing with partners are described as the new normal for modern businesses.
• Life Sciences, Pharmaceuticals, and BioTech are identified as industries with above-average collaboration and rapid innovation requirements.
• Cyberattacks are stated to be increasing in number, severity, and sophistication, with continued growth expected.
• State-driven attacks are described as common against high-tech industries, particularly targeting intellectual property.
• Attacks on companies developing COVID-19 vaccines have been publicly reported.
• Many organizations are adopting “cloud first” IT strategies, shifting services to cloud environments.
• Remote work and “work from home” are described as normalized, especially during COVID-19.
• Cloud services are stated not to be less secure than internal IT by default, and may be more secure for many organizations.
• Some countries have laws restricting the use of encryption technologies such as VPNs.
• Rohde & Schwarz Cybersecurity’s portfolio is presented as spanning application, cloud, endpoint, and network security.

Notable Quotes

• “Collaboration & sharing are the new normal in modern businesses.”
• “A well-defined balance between risk management and utilizing business opportunities requires an understanding of the specific information risks.”
• “Every business dealing with innovative intellectual properties must assume attacks and must assume breach”
• “The ancient approach of internal data centers being locked by a perimeter and protected by firewalls is past.”
• “Massive restriction for collaboration and information sharing due to security concerns can’t be the solution, because this stands in stark contrast to the business requirements in Digital Transformation.”
• “An IPLC approach must support all collaboration, information sharing, and information storage models, supporting the business requirements.”
• “Simple brute force attacks against encryption will not be sufficient”
• “Strong encryption is a key element in information protection”
• “Dispose: Have a process in place for disposing data that isn’t required anymore – data requires the effort for protecting data.”
• “Security concerns must not hinder businesses in innovation and in their journey towards Digital Transformation.”