To protect your IP, your CAD files need file-level security, unencrypted labelling, digital supply chain security and CAD file data governance.
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How seriously do you take IP protection? Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Operations (AECO) companies that treat IP protection as an afterthought are sleepwalking into disaster. While the average data breach in 2025 costs ‘just’ $4.4M, leaking your IP is way more costly — exposing your closely-guarded trade secrets and potentially erasing your competitive advantage forever.
Much of AECO’s IP is contained in CAD files, such as 3D models, infrastructure designs and engineering blueprints. But completely locking down this IP with encryption is not suitable for the collaborative nature of AECO workflows, so what should you do?
Here’s four features that your CAD file security needs to protect your IP without impeding workflows.
Like Manufacturing and Defense, AECO is vulnerable to both external and insider cyber threats. But AECO’s high level of third-party collaboration makes it particularly exposed to digital supply chain breaches.
According to Verizon’s 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report, 30% of cyber breaches in 2025 involved third parties - double the year previous. AECO companies with complex supply chains are therefore more likely to suffer purposeful theft or accidental leaking of sensitive internal documents, such as CAD files, contractual PDFs and product reports.
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 supplier could accidentally share your CAD files with a fourth-party or provide unauthorized access to your cloud-based BIM/CDE environment.
For example, in 2020, cyber attackers gained entry to the IT system of French construction giant Bouygues and then stole over 1000 TB of sensitive personal and IP data.
Whether it’s a disgruntled employee downloading CAD files onto a USB drive, a potential partner stealing your ideas from a tender submission or a key engineer stealing confidential secrets before joining a competitor, insider threats are a major source of AECO IP leaks.
Your employees and partners can also accidentally expose credentials through ignorance (i.e. uploading them to a shared BIM/CDE environment) or through sophisticated scams (i.e. AI-voice phishing) — leading to copycat projects and lost opportunities (i.e. if a rival has your IP and unit costs they can undermine your future contract bids).
For example, environmental engineering company, Weiss Technik, was subject to an internal IP theft by four rogue employees that were leaving to form a competing business in 2022.
Not only are AECO’s digital designs, custom blueprints and BIM models highly prized by external cyber attackers and rogue internal actors, but the growing reliance on cloud-based collaboration has expanded the avenues for IP leaks.
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 system like Autodesk Construction Cloud) 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, but encryption is not compatible with all CDE environments and can slow down production when collaborating externally. For some CAD files - and other AECO project files like PDF contracts or blueprints - unencrypted file protection is sufficient for data security and governance. For example, digitally watermarking CAD files ensures lifelong file traceability and reduces the chance of leaks without impacting workflows.
Be it building blueprints or detailed specifications outlined in a tender submission, today’s architects and engineers need to share CAD designs with existing and potential 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.
With Secude’s unencrypted file-level CAD security, you can protect your CAD files from insider and third-party threats without slowing down your workflows.
In particular, Secude’s digital watermarking software (HaloSHARE) embeds discreet and visible watermarks into your CAD files’ metadata, enabling you to heighten CAD file security and governance without encryption.
This allows you to upload files to the shared BIM/CDE environments, such as Autodesk Construction Cloud, for use by multiple collaborators and hold any collaborator that leaks the file legally accountable.
Check out our AECO page to learn more.
Read how HaloSHARE secures AECO workflows without encryption.
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