No matter the size of the board or the company, it’s essential for boards to protect confidential documents. This means that the information cannot be accessed by anyone who is not authorized to access it. This could prevent information leakage that could negatively impact the company or result in a loss in confidence.

A comprehensive policy is important for addressing these concerns. The ideal policy would stipulate that directors are bound to keep confidential all material non-public information they receive or acquire while on the board. The policy should clearly define confidential information and should include a clause that a breach secure document exchange of confidentiality is considered to be a breach of director’s fiduciary obligations to the company.

The policy should also define how the board will respond to an incident. The board should, in general be able to consider a variety responses, ranging from censure by fellow directors, to, at a minimum removal from the board. This will ensure that the rules will be respected and enforced whenever necessary.

To establish a solid board security system for documents is vital that the secretary use an appropriate board management and distribution system. These systems can be set up in a matter of minutes and offer administrative controls and digital rights management (DRM), which are essential to assist the secretary of the board in securely distributing the board documents. The system may also provide the possibility of setting up specific access rights for each user with viewing and printing restrictions, PDF expiry dates visible watermarks, and the ability of reviewing who has seen a document.