More Than Half of Ex-Employees Admit to Stealing Company Data According to New Study: Via CNN:Money

Symantec Reveals Companies Lack Adequate Data Loss Prevention Controls

Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ: SYMC) and the Ponemon Institute, a leading privacy and information management research firm, today announced the findings of a joint survey of employees who lost or left a job in 2008, which revealed 59 percent of ex-employees admit to stealing confidential company information, such as customer contact lists. The results also show that if respondents' companies had implemented better data loss prevention policies and technologies, many of those instances of data theft could have been prevented.

Of respondents who admitted to taking company data, 61 percent also reported having an unfavorable view of their former employer. The most commonly identified kinds of records taken included e-mail lists, employee records, customer information including contact lists, and non-financial information. Although respondents were spread across many different industries, the highest percentage of survey responses came from the financial services industry.

ADDITIONAL SURVEY FINDINGS

• 53 percent of respondents downloaded information onto a CD or DVD, 42 percent onto a USB drive and 38 percent sent attachments to a personal e-mail account.
• 79 percent of respondents took data without an employer's permission.
• 82 percent of respondents said their employers did not perform an audit or review of paper or electronic documents before the respondent left his/her job.
• 24 percent of respondents had access to their employer's computer system or network after their departure from the company.

The Ponemon Institute conducted the web-based survey in January 2009, polling nearly 1,000 adult participants located in the United States who left an employer within the past 12 months.

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