Stop your IP and Design files from being stolen?
A defence subcontractor retains your design drawings in an archive after a project concludes. An engineer leaving for a competitor copies a library of DWG files before their access is removed. A design consultancy shares engineering specifications with a third party during a tender process and has no visibility into what happens to those files after submission.
In each case, the most valuable asset in the organisation, the IP that represents years of investment, competitive advantage, and in some cases national security relevance, has left the building. Standard encryption tools cannot protect it. Most DLP tools cannot even see it.
The challenge
Design files, CAD drawings, engineering specifications, source code, and simulation outputs often hold the greatest IP value in design-led organisations, yet they are among the least protected.
Traditional security tools were built mainly for documents, PDFs, and spreadsheets, not the large, complex, proprietary files used in defence, manufacturing, aerospace, and engineering.
This creates a major protection gap. Design files are routinely shared with project teams, contractors, subcontractors, and supply chains. Each handoff increases the risk of permanent loss, and once a file leaves, organisations often have little visibility into whether it has been copied, retained, or passed on.
The Solution
PROTECT Design was built specifically to address this challenge. It applies persistent encryption to design files while they are open and in active use, allowing authorised users to download files from a secure repository and continue working with them securely.
Once protected, the file remains encrypted as it is opened, edited, saved, shared, or archived, helping organisations maintain control over valuable design IP even after it leaves the original repository.
Persistent in-use encryption for CAD, DWG, STL, and engineering files. The encryption is transparent and does not pause when an engineer opens the file. It stays on through every save, every transfer, every handoff across a project team or supply chain. A file copied, stolen, or exfiltrated cannot be opened by anyone without authorisation.
Remote kill switch. When a contractor engagement ends, an employee departs, or a file is confirmed in the wrong hands, access is revoked instantly by destroying the encryption key from a central console. No physical access to any device is required. The file becomes unreadable immediately.
Supply chain and subcontractor control. Files shared with external parties remain under your authority. Access can be revoked at any time, for any file, including files already shared externally, without touching the device that holds them.
The Outcome
Organisations using PROTECT Design can share IP during tenders, engage subcontractors with confidence, and collaborate across global supply chains without the exposure anxiety that currently limits how freely design data can move. The IP leaves your environment. The control does not.
A subcontractor retains files after their engagement ends. They cannot open them. A competitor obtains design specifications during a bid process. They cannot read them. A departing engineer copies a design library. It is worthless to them without keys they will never have.
Stolen data cannot be read. Ransomware has nothing to threaten you with. Departing employees leave with files they cannot open.
Next Step
Try for yourself, we can set up a remote test to invite you to receive an encrypted design file, on one workstation you can open it, edit and save it even in another format – remains encrypted all the time and on the other workstation it can’t be opened.
Try GuardWare PROTECT for yourself.
guardware.com · sales@guardware.com.au · +61-2 8551 8500
