“There are only two categories of companies affected by trade secret theft—those that know they’ve been compromised and those that don’t know it yet.” —Attorney General Eric Holder, speaking at the Administration Trade Secret Strategy Rollout on Feb. 20, 2013.

Five years later, has anything changed? Of course, the most significant change in the law since former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s speech was the enactment of the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act in 2016, which largely federalized the Uniform Trade Secrets Act and provided some new enforcement tools, including ex parte seizure. But with constant development of new, valuable trade secrets and evolving technology, there is no reason to think Holder’s warning carries any less weight today. Given this reality, do companies do enough to proactively protect what often is their most valuable asset—their trade secrets? Inevitably, for many businesses, the answer is probably not.

How are trade secrets protected?