Hummingbird’s Information Management Survey of 1,385 business executives revealed that 29% of departing directors have admitted to stealing corporate information when they left a company. The survey, conducted by polling company YouGov on behalf of Hummingbird, also found that 24% of the thefts involved using memory sticks or MP3 players to move data and 18% involved the use of e-mail.
Materials most likely to be stolen include training documentation and procedure manuals, although 18% of those who steal will take financial figures and 14% will take client reports.
According to Tony Heywood, a senior vice president of Hummingbird, “Businesses should stop relying on the moral code of the individual employee to ensure information capital is protected and implement the appropriate enabling information management systems to control information flow.”
Yeah… like installing a CCTV behind the backs of employees to spy on them. I know of a company that does that.
The survey also noted that 28% of employees waste 20% of their e-mail time searching through e-mails, looking for attachments and documents and dealing with e-mail overload. However, it probably didn’t take into account the time spent to channel stolen data to personal e-mail accounts.
Then again, that technically wouldn’t qualify as a waste of time, would it?
