One in 4 Employees Take Data When Leaving a Company, Survey Shows

More than one in four respondents say they took data when leaving a company, while 15% of respondents said they are more likely to take company data if they are forced out of their job (fired or laid off), rather than leaving on their own, according to a survey by Biscom.

Of those who take company data, 85% report they take material they have created themselves and don’t feel this is wrong. While the majority take their own documents, only 25% of the respondents report taking data that they did not create themselves.

The study also shows that 95% of respondents said that this was possible because either their company did not have policies or technology in place to prevent data stealing, or that if companies did have those policies in place, they simply ignored them.

“The survey’s results reveal employees as a big security hole,” said John Lane, CISO of Biscom. “Companies can use this information to understand how they can protect their data. Whether it’s updating employee training, establishing stricter company policies to prevent data theft, or obtaining secure tools to store and track company data.”

The survey results also showed that the technology a company implements plays a major role when deciding to take company data. Due to tools such as Dropbox, Google Drive and email, taking files is nearly effortless.

Some 93% of office workers engage in some form of risky online habits that could jeopardize their employer or customers, according to a previous HOTforSecurity article. Long-term employees (7+ years) tend to introduce greater overall security risks.