Coca-Cola trade secret theft underscores importance of insider threat early detection

The trial of Xiaorong You is set to begin today, April 6, in Greenville, TN. She is accused of trade secret theft and economic espionage after allegedly stealing bisphenol-A-free (BPA-free) technologies owned by several companies, including her former employers Coca-Cola and Eastman Chemical Company. The value placed on the development of the stolen technologies is $119.6 million. Other affected companies include Azko-Nobel, Dow Chemical, PPG, TSI, Sherwin Williams and ToyoChem.

The details of the case suggest that the damages You is allegedly responsible for could have been minimized if better real-time insider threat detection methods had been in place. They also outline possible motives for the theft of the intellectual property: ego and money.

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