It’s fairly well documented that many office workers steal supplies, but apparently many also steal data, especially upon “termination”:
The survey, conducted by the Ponemon Institute, said that so-called malicious insiders use the information to get a new job, start their own business or for revenge.
“They are making these judgements based out of fear and anxiety,” the Institute’s Mike Spinney told BBC News.
“People are worried about their jobs and want to hedge their bets,” he said.
“Our study showed that 59% of people will say ‘I’m going to take something of value with me when I go’.”
The Ponemon Institute, a privacy and management research firm, surveyed 945 adults in the United States who were laid-off, fired or changed jobs in the last 12 months.
Everyone that took part had access to proprietary information such as customer data, contact lists, employee records, financial reports, confidential business documents, software tools or other intellectual property.
I’m guessing that if someone felt unfairly laid-off or fired, he or she would be much more likely to take data than someone who simply changed jobs (though all of those categories are grouped together in the survey).
February 25th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
If there were any such thing as true job security, then incidents like these would be minimal. That being said, however, I don’t think things of this nature are justified.
February 25th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
Agreed!