In a
survey of 1,385 business people, 29% of company directors admitting
to stealing confidential corporate information when they left a
company. The survey, conducted by polling company YouGov on behalf
of software company Hummingbird, found that 24% of the thefts
involved using memory sticks or MP3 players to move data and 18%
used email.
The information was revealed as part of Hummingbird's
Information Management Survey, which assesses the way in which
firms are coping with increases in information sources.
"There is an exponential increase in communications technologies
in the work place and it is harder and harder for organisations to
control information access and to protect the confidentiality of
vital data," said 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.”
"While the majority of employment contracts have a clause
forbidding the unauthorised removal of information, it is
incredibly difficult to track and monitor given the explosion in
volume of information dealt with on a daily basis," said
Heywood.
The most likely material to be stolen is relatively low risk.
Employees are most likely to steal training documentation and
procedure manuals, but 18% of those who steal will take financial
figures and 14% will take client reports. "Organisations have to be
aware of their growing vulnerability to corporate espionage and do
something about it," said Heywood.
The survey also found that 28% of employees say that they waste
20% of the time they spend on email. Searching through emails,
looking for attachments and documents and dealing with email
overload eats up one fifth of their email time, the employees told
the survey.
"The results call into question the reality of the so-called
knowledge economy," said a statement from Hummingbird.
"Productivity levels seem to be plummeting due to the sheer amount
of information that employees are dealing with."
