Data walks out the door when people go

Seven out of 10 employees plan to take confidential company data with them when leave a firm, according to security experts at Impervia.

The software security company published the results of a survey among 1,000 UK employees and found that 72% of respondents had already pilfered corporate information from past employers.

Customer data, HR, marketing and intellectual property data were among the material that walked out the door with them. Nearly six out of 10 respondents (59%) said they felt entitled to take the information.
 
“This survey indicates that most individuals leaving their jobs suddenly believe they have rightful ownership to that data just by virtue of their corporate tenure,” said Imperva chief technology officer Amichai Shulman.

More than three quarters of those questioned said their employers either had no policies in place for removing data from laptops when staff left, or they were unaware of any. A similar number held corporate information on their home or mobile computers, but USB memory sticks, mobile phones and other portable storage devices were all used to take away corporate data.