To protect your IP, your CAD files need file-level security, encrypted labelling, digital supply chain security and CAD file data governance.
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In Defense, IP leakage is not just catastrophic for your company, but also for national security.
According to IBM, data breaches in 2025 cost $4.4M on average. But leaking your IP is way more costly — revealing your closely-guarded trade secrets, exposing Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) and permanently erasing your competitive advantage.
Most Defense contractors enforce digital DLP security measures to safeguard their intellectual property, but these struggle with one crucial blindspot: CAD files. CAD files contain much of Defense companies’ IP - from 3D Aerospace models and military vehicle designs to machine instructions and prototype visualizations - but traditional DLP security does not adequately protect CAD files.
Unless your CAD file security has these four crucial features, you’re putting your IP - and your nation - at risk.
According to the US Trade Representative, the United States loses up to $600 billion per year from IP theft. In recent years, state actors like China and Russia have increased efforts to steal IP from US Defense contractors with former FBI Director Christopher Wray stating that “the People’s Republic of China is engaged in the largest and most sophisticated theft of intellectual property and expertise in the history of the world.”
These IP threats are both external (i.e. targeted cyberattacks on national infrastructure projects) and internal (i.e. stealing of sensitive internal documents by rogue employees).
While some cyber attackers will target your perimeter security to steal CAD files, most external threats arise from supply chain and cloud vulnerabilities. In particular, cyber attackers will target smaller (and less security-focused) third-party partners in order to gain access to your supply chain and steal your IP by stealth. Meanwhile, a trusted parts supplier could accidentally share your CAD files with a fourth-party or provide unauthorized access to your cloud-based PLM system.
For example, in the last two years, Chinese nationals and US citizens have been convicted of stealing confidential data from a defense contractor, turbine designs from an infrastructure company and trade secrets from US aerospace companies.
Whether it’s a disgruntled employee downloading CAD files onto a USB drive or a key engineer stealing confidential secrets, espionage-related threats account for 17% of cyber breaches (up from 3% in 2024). Insiders can also accidentally expose credentials through ignorance (i.e. uploading them to a shared data environment) or through sophisticated scams (i.e. AI-voice phishing).
For example, in November 2025, a federal jury found a Defense employee guilty of stealing sensitive defense research from his employer and attempting to sell it for personal profit.
Defense designs, engineering processes and cutting-edge technologies are highly prized by external cyber attackers and rogue internal actors. CAD file security is therefore vital for Defense contractors — both for protecting sensitive drawings and for complying with the Department of Defense’s CMMC regulations around CUI.
To successfully protect your IP from external and insider threats, your CAD file security must therefore have these four features.
Automatic file-level security protects CAD files containing your IP as soon as they’re generated. Embedded in the application layer of all major CAD file formats (i.e. Autodesk, Siemens, PTC, and Dassault Systemes etc), file-level security enforces CAD file access controls before the data is stored internally (or in a cloud-based PLM system) and when shared externally, so your CAD files are secure even if they fall into the wrong hands.
Encrypting CAD files from creation is the strongest level of CAD file security, ensuring CAD file data classification and preventing unauthorized access for the lifetime of the file. But encryption can slow down production when collaborating externally. To ensure seamless and secure production workflows, you need to be able to encrypt hundreds of sensitive files in shared folders (i.e. CAD files, PDFs and MS Office files in SharePoint or OneDrive) in bulk.
Be it product blueprints or detailed specifications, Defense engineers occasionally share CAD designs with supply chain partners. But as soon as these files leave your IT perimeter, they are at risk of duplication, accidental leaking and targeted attacks unless your CAD file security enforces access controls for the files’ lifetime — no matter where they travel.
IP theft is not always instant. Files downloaded today could be used years later, so it’s vital to know where the files travel, who accesses them and what edits were made. At a minimum, your CAD file security should have tracking and revocation capabilities that enable you to monitor usage and revoke access at any time — even after distribution. This is especially important for CAD files that are CUI as it helps you satisfy your CMMC requirements.
With Secude’s encrypted file-level CAD security, you can protect your CAD files from insider and third-party threats without slowing down workflows.
Check out our Defense page to learn more.
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