A mere six months ago you were a small ‘widget’ manufacturer based in the West Midlands. A family business, now in its third generation. The company had provided well for you and your family for as long as you can remember. You prided yourself on your craft and the high quality of your workmanship. Then something changed.

It’s all a bit of a blur now, but you were approached by a major brand in the USA to make a small well engineered sensor for a forthcoming market changing gadget. You jumped through all the hoops, all the due diligence and then ramped up production to meet this amazing opportunity.

The problem is that as a sub-contractor for ‘that client’ your company has now attracted the attention of others who are determined to learn the details of your design, understand your contract with ‘the client’ and see if in any way you are a weak link in a supply chain that if compromised would embarrass ‘the client’ who is one of the worlds most respected companies. Their determination has paid off, you have been breached and data that was labelled ‘company confidential’ and contained both your intellectual property and that of ‘the client’ is now starting to surface on the dark recesses of the un-Googled web.

This article was written by Stuart Wilkes on behalf of the National Cyber Skills Centre. To read the whole article, please click this link.