Survey: 25 percent of office workers would steal data

Some of your biggest security problems could be coming from inside your office. A new survey by Cyber-Ark Software, an information security company based in Newton, Mass., finds that four out of 10 office workers say they have already taken sensitive company data with a USB flash memory drive.

The survey also found that 25 percent of office workers would steal sensitive company data if they thought it would help a friend or family member get a job.

And the numbers get worse. Some 26 percent of those surveyed say they would be willing to steal company data if they were fired. Some 24 percent would take data if they heard rumors that their job was at risk, and 28 percent said they would use purloined data to negotiate a new position.

"While there is no excuse for employees who are willing to compromise their ethics to save their job, much of the responsibility for protecting sensitive proprietary data falls on the employer," said Adam Bosnian, vice president of products and strategy, Cyber-Ark Software.

"Organizations must be willing to make improvements to how they monitor and control access to databases, networks and systems--even by those privileged users who have legitimate rights," Bosnian told PC World.

This kind of information has to be chilling for any IT executive who is trying to run a tight ship with no leaks or stolen data. And it becomes even more imperative for IT managers to figure out how to prevent employees from getting their hands on company data as well as keeping workers happy and not disgruntled enough to turn to these tactics.

For more on employees stealing data:
- see this pcworld.com article [1]

Related Article:
Drowning in passwords [2]
Data on 800,000 doctors stolen [3]
Security breaches are no joke [4]