Beware of laid off and fired workers

A survey of 945 individuals who were laid off, fired or quit their jobs in the past 12 months found that 59 percent admitted stealing company data and 67 percent said they used their former company's confidential information to leverage a new job. The survey, reported in CIO magazine, was taken by the Ponemon Institute and sponsored by Symantec.

"There are many tragic scenarios now where people are under tremendous pressure," said Kevin Rowney, founder of the DLP division at Symantec.

The survey found the biggest thefts involved email-related information and hardcopy files. The individuals said they simply walked out with paper documents or transferred data onto a CD, DVD, USB memory stick or sent documents out as e-mail attachments to a personal email account. Some admitted knowing their actions were wrong.

But 79 percent of those who admitted taking information without permission offered various excuses including "everyone else does," "the information may be useful in the future" and "the company can't trace the information back to me."

For more on the survey:
- see this CIO.com article

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