This disclosure addresses systems and methods for the protection of proprietary information by monitoring operational watermarks of an apparatus. A monitoring device may receive logical or physical watermark data from a defended apparatus. Watermark data may include any operational or environmental variable related to the defended apparatus. The monitoring device may maintain a baseline profile for the defended apparatus that includes watermark data. During monitoring of the defended apparatus by the monitor device, changes in the watermark data may be analyzed to determine if the baseline should be dynamically updated, or if the change indicates an anomaly. Anomalies may indicate an attempt to tamper with the defended apparatus. In response to the change that indicates an anomaly, the monitoring device may scrub the contents of the defended apparatus. In an embodiment, the monitoring device may also scrub its own memory in response to an anomaly.