Zebra Tech (ZBRA) Risk Analysis

Our intellectual property is valuable and provides us with certain competitive advantages. We use copyrights, patents, trademarks, trade secrets, confidentiality provisions and contracts to protect these proprietary rights. Despite these precautions, third parties may be able to copy or reproduce aspects of our intellectual property and our offerings or, without authorization, to misappropriate and use information we regard as trade secrets. Additionally, the laws of certain countries do not protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as the laws of the U.S., and we might not be able to protect our intellectual property adequately against unauthorized third-party use in certain jurisdictions. Additionally, the intellectual property rights we are able to obtain may not be sufficient to provide us with a competitive advantage and may be successfully challenged, invalidated, circumvented, or infringed. In any infringement litigation that the Company may undertake to protect our intellectual property, any award of monetary damages may be unlikely or very difficult to obtain, and any such award we may receive may not be commercially valuable. Furthermore, efforts to enforce or protect our proprietary rights may be ineffective and could result in the invalidation or narrowing of the scope of our intellectual property and may cause us to incur substantial litigation costs. Because of the substantial amount of discovery required in connection with intellectual property litigation, there is a risk that some of the Company's confidential information could be compromised by disclosure during this type of litigation.

We rely on information technology systems throughout the Company to keep financial records, process orders, manage inventory, coordinate shipments to distributors and customers, maintain confidential and proprietary information, and other technical activities, and operate other critical functions such as internet connectivity, network communications, and email. In addition to Company-owned systems, the Company also stores confidential and proprietary information through cloud-based services that are hosted by third parties where we have less influence over security protocols. Like many companies, we continually strive to meet industry information security standards relevant to our business. We periodically perform vulnerability assessments, remediate vulnerabilities, review log/access, perform system maintenance, manage network perimeter protection, implement and manage disaster recovery testing, and provide periodic educational sessions to our employees to foster awareness of schemes to access sensitive information. Despite our implementation of a variety of security controls and measures, as well as those of our third-party vendors, there is no assurance that such actions will be sufficient to prevent a cybersecurity incident. Further, as cybersecurity threats continue to rapidly evolve and become increasingly more difficult to detect and defend against, our current security controls and measures may not be effective in preventing cybersecurity incidents and we may not have the capabilities to detect and remediate certain vulnerabilities, which may allow unremediated vulnerabilities to persist over long periods of time. Accordingly, we may fail to remediate such vulnerabilities in time to prevent a cybersecurity incident. A cybersecurity incident could include an attempt to gain unauthorized access to digital systems for purposes of misappropriating assets or sensitive information, corrupting data, or causing operational disruption. Phishing and other types of attempts to obtain unauthorized information or access are often sophisticated and difficult to detect or defeat. Cybersecurity incidents can take a variety of forms including unintentional events as well as deliberate attacks by individuals, groups and sophisticated organizations, such as state sponsored organizations or nation-state actors. Further, certain of our third-party vendors have limited access to our employee and customer data and may use this data in unauthorized ways. Any such cybersecurity incident or misuse of our employees' or customers' data may lead to a material disruption of our core business systems, the loss or corruption of confidential business information, and/or the disclosure of personal data that in each case could result in an adverse business impact as well as possible damage to our brand. This could also lead to a public disclosure or theft of private intellectual property and a possible loss of customer confidence. In addition, any failure on the part of one of our contract manufacturers, distributors or resellers to maintain the security of its systems or data, including via the penetration of their network security or ransomware, could result in business disruption to us and damage to our reputation. While we have experienced and expect to continue to experience cybersecurity threats and incidents, there have been no material incidents incurred to-date at the Company. However, new technologies and systems being installed with the intent of advancing capabilities and processing efficiencies may introduce new vulnerabilities which could outpace the Company's ability to properly identify, assess and address such vulnerabilities. Further, new business models that rely heavily on global digitization, use of the cloud, big data, mobile and social media could expose the Company to even more cybersecurity threats and incidents. If our core business operations, or that of one of our third-party vendors, were to be breached, this could affect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of our systems and data. Any failure on our part, or by our third-party vendors, to maintain the security of data we are required to protect, including via the penetration of our network security and the misappropriation of confidential and proprietary information, could result in: business disruption; damage to our reputation; financial obligations to third parties; fines, penalties, regulatory proceedings; private litigation with potentially large costs; deterioration in our suppliers', distributors', and customers' confidence in us; as well as other competitive disadvantages. Such failures to maintain the security of data could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Although we maintain insurance related to cybersecurity risks, there can be no assurance that our insurance will cover the particular cybersecurity incident at issue or that such coverage will be sufficient. While we continue to perform security due diligence, there is always the possibility of a significant breach.

The global demand for wireless communications has grown exponentially, and spurred competition for access among various networks and users. In response, regulators in various jurisdictions are reassessing spectrum allocations among users and considering whether to change the allocation of, or require sharing of, certain spectrum bands. Certain of our offerings are dependent on the use of licensed and unlicensed radio frequency spectrum for wireless voice, data, and video communications. The utility and reliability of such offerings may be adversely affected by the reallocation of radio frequency bands, other modifications of the permitted uses of relevant frequency bands, and interference from other services and equipment operating either in-band or in adjacent frequency bands, which may cause adverse impacts on our offerings and reduce demand for such offerings. Further, regulatory changes may necessitate modifications to certain of our offerings so they can continue to operate as expected.