denotes premium content | Feb 8 2012 
News
posted 10 Nov 2006
Security
Corporate information theft is rife, according to survey
A HUMMINGBIRD/YouGov survey of 1,385 UK employees suggests that theft of corporate information has become a widespread problem, with 29% of directors admitting to stealing confidential information when they leave an employer.
Company training manuals are the most popular item in the executive ‘swag bag’, followed by procedure manuals, financial information and client reports.
The survey suggests that women are less likely to pilfer corporate information assets: 37 per cent say they would never take information without authorisation, compared with 26 per cent of their male colleagues.
Technology is playing a significant role in this trend: memory sticks and MP3 players, such as Apple iPods, make it easy to take corporate data offsite in a manner that makes it hard for IT departments to keep information nailed down.
Almost a quarter (24 per cent) of UK employees said they would use their MP3 player or memory stick to steal corporate information and more than two-thirds (67 per cent) of respondents thought that the ease with which digital information could be copied made it impractical for employers to prevent theft.
