Whatever the size of the board or company, it’s important for boards to secure confidential documents. This means that the information is not accessible to anyone who is not authorized to do so. This can prevent information leakage that could impact the business or cause a loss in trust.
In order to solve these issues it is imperative to have an overall policy. The policy should clearly state that directors must protect any material non-public data they acquire or receive when they are on the board. The policy should also clearly define what constitutes confidential information, and include a clear definition of what constitutes confidential information and a breach of confidentiality is considered a violation of the director’s fiduciary duty to the company.
The policy should also specify how the board will respond to the occurrence of a breach. The board should, generally, consider a variety of responses, ranging from a censure from fellow directors, to, at a minimum, removal from board. This helps ensure that the policy is respected and will be enforced in the event that the need arises.
To implement a robust board document security system it is crucial that the secretary has an appropriate board management and distribution system. These systems can be configured in a matter of minutes and offer administrative controls and digital rights management (DRM), which are needed to assist the board secretary in securely sharing board documents. The system can also give the possibility of setting up specific access rights for each individual including viewing and printing restrictions, PDF expiry dates visible watermarks as well as the ability to see who has viewed a particular document.