Report reveals alarming attitudes to data theft in the UK workplace

Independent research from Prefix IT reveals that UK businesses are the victims of high levels of data theft by staff, including confidential documents, customer databases, business contacts and sales leads. This danger is compounded by widespread ownership of personal storage devices such as USB memory sticks or iPods, capable of storing company data.

The survey found that:

• 37 percent of men believe it’s acceptable to take database information and sales leads;
• 78 percent of workforce owns devices capable of download and storing data;
• 49 percent of 16-24 year-olds do not think workplace theft is stealing;
• 73 percent of graduate trainees admit to office theft;
• 56 percent believe companies expect things ‘to go walk-about’;
• 60 percent of workers have removed items from the office in the past;
• 18 percent of men take business contact details;
• 11 percent (15 percent for men) remove confidential documents;
• 10 percent have stolen a work database (18 percent of graduate trainees);
• 13 percent of workers at larger SMEs (501-1000 employees) have taken software;
• 10 percent of larger SME employees have stolen computer equipment;
• 30 percent of workers believe sales leads/business contacts are rightfully theirs.

Prefix warns that loss of such intellectual property can seriously impact a business’ performance, particularly if such information falls into the hands of a competitive organisation and advises employers to build robust security processes to guard against data theft.

Mid-sized SMEs (51-250 employees) have the biggest problem, as 36 percent of employees ‘have no issue’ with taking leads and database information. Graduate trainees pose the biggest threat; 55 percent believe there is no moral dilemma involved.

Over a quarter (27 percent) disagreed that ‘taking things from work was the same as stealing’. This response was strongest amongst 16-24 year olds (49 percent) and graduate trainees (41 percent).

The research was carried out online in August and September 2006 by Tickbox.net and includes over 1000 responses from a nationally representative sample of working adults.

http://www.prefixit.com

•Date: 29th Sept 2006• Region: UK •Type: Article •Topic: BC statistics
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