Majority of staff happy to leave with company data

A new survey conducted by security specialist Imperva has discovered that the majority of staff leaving a firm are likely to take sensitive company data with them. Indeed, many feel it’s their right to do so.

IT Pro reports that 72% of respondents intend to take such sensitive details with them when they leave their employment.

Concerning the type of data they’d nick, a quarter said it would be intellectual property, and over 20% would make off with customer records.

Over half of those questioned said it was easy to get hold of such data, as they could view information not directly related to their job with unrestricted access.

Imperva CTO Amichai Shulman told IT Pro: “This survey refutes the conventional wisdom that insiders are corporate spies or revenge-seeking employees.”

“It seems most employees have no deliberate intention to cause the company any damage. Rather, this survey indicates that most individuals leaving their jobs suddenly believe that they had rightful ownership to that data just by virtue of their corporate tenure.”

In fact, nearly half of those surveyed felt that they had a personal right to the data they worked with.