Are Company Secrets Safe With Recession Hit Employees?

Posted on 11/24/09 at 6:52am by Ed Liston

A transatlantic survey has revealed that almost 50% of financial sector workers in New York and London would take sensitive company information with them if they were fired.

Of the 600 office workers in Canary Wharf in London and Wall Street in NYC, 41% revealed they had taken sensitive data when they moved to new positions. Around one third also said that they could pass company information if it helped friends or family get a job. A quarter also mentioned that the recession has lowered their level of loyalty towards their company.

The survey by management specialists Cyber-Ark reveals that employees seem to be desperate enough to do almost anything to ensure job security and make themselves more marketable and that includes committing a crime too.

For data thieves, at the top of the list were customer and contact details at 29% with plans and proposals coming in 2nd at 18%. More than 30% would have no qualms in looking at a redundancy list to see if they figured in it, and would be willing to bribe HR to get the info. The poll also showed that only 20 percent of British respondents were prepared to take a salary cut to keep their jobs compared to 50 percent of U.S. workers.

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by Marc Hocking CTO Becrypt on 12/03/09 8:02am

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Statement from Marc Hocking, CTO, Becrypt

 

The recent stories surrounding data theft reinforce the need for companies to have a sound Information Assurance strategy. This needs to comprise of effective policy which is reinforced by technology. The correct controls need to be in place from the start – trying to put these in place after an employee has been sacked and stolen data is like bolting the barn door after the horse has bolted. Whenever an organisation hires a new employee, there needs to be education about the data policy, and continual reinforcement of this to ensure that employees are updated on any policy changes. Organisations need to make sure that strategies are in place across the entire employee lifecycle, and ensure that these are effectively communicated, so prevent potentially catastrophic data loss.

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