Most employees would steal data. Companies worry, but do nothing
If any manager out there was still wondering if their employees would actually steal company data, the answer is here. Yes, they would, although they know it’s illegal. And while most companies know the main threats that can lead to data theft are insiders, they do little to nothing about it. This is the Dark Reading conclusion after putting together two separate surveys conducted by security vendors.
One of the researches surveyed over 600 employees from the financial districts in New York, USA, and London UK. A lot of respondents admitted they had no problem taking work home and then keeping it for their own benefit. While the overwhelming majority knows this would be illegal, some had already taken confidential data to a new job and others said they would share such data at any time with friends or family if that would help them get hired in a better position. There are also those who would just take the private data just in case, as a long term insurance policy.
What they’d still from your company? Customer and contract lists first, proposals and plans afterward and only then product information.
The second survey showed that about 70% of companies see full-time employees as the biggest threat when it comes to stealing corporate data. The majority of respondents, most of them from the financial services field, are moderately to extremely concerned that laid-off or disgruntled employees could plant malicious software scripts or destroy company property. How much lost money would that mean? They again agreed on about 100 million dollars in the next 12 months.
Yet companies do believe at least half of those stealing their data ar caught. They also plan to change almost nothing in their security policy to prevent such breaches. They do believe though that the financial industry in general has a poor to somewhat acceptable ability to detect fraud.
It seems that the general trend is to worry, but do nothing. I’d say that’s a suicidal business strategy!
