One in three employees would sell business secrets

One in three UK employees would hand over their company secrets in exchange for £1 million, a new survey discovered this week.

Infosecurity Europe found that 37% of commuters polled at London railway stations would sell out on their company if the price was right.

Two thirds of those questioned said it would be easy to sneak information out of their workplace, whilst 88% said the information they have access to is valuable.

“It’s quite staggering that a third of people are open to bribery,” said Infosecurity spokesperson Tamar Beck.

Of those offering to give away secrets, 63% would only be willing to do so for at least £1 million.

One in ten (10%) would do it in exchange for having their mortgage paid off, 5% for a holiday, and 4% to have their credit card debts cleared.

Two percent said they’d tell company secrets in exchange for a slap up meal.

“The surprised researchers couldn’t believe their ears,” Infosecurity said.

Sensitive information that employees admitted having access to included customer data bases (83%), business plans (72%), accounting systems (53%), human resources databases (51%), and IT admin passwords (37%).

Infosecurity believes that firms should train their employees on how to protect sensitive data.

Beck explained: “Criminals are very adept at finding the vulnerable workers who can be tempted into betraying their employers, therefore, organisations should ensure that they have trained their people to protect sensitive information and have adequate technology and processes in place to help them enforce security policies that comply with current regulation and legislation”

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