Employees Admit They'd Walk Out With Stolen Data If Fired

Gunkerty Jeb writes "In a recent survey of IT managers and executives, nearly half of respondents admitted that if they were fired tomorrow they would walk out with proprietary data such as privileged password lists, company databases, R&D plans and financial reports — even though they know they are not entitled to it. So, it's no surprise that 71 percent believe the insider threat is the priority security concern and poses the most significant business risk. Despite growing awareness of the need to better monitor privileged accounts, only 57 percent say they actively do so. The other 43 percent weren't sure or knew they didn't. And of those that monitored, more than half said they could get around the current controls."

Comments

And how much data ACTUALLY walks out?

[el_tedward]

Everyone preaches about the insider threat, even though less than 4% of all incidents come from insiders.. If you count by the number of breached records, insiders make up less than 1% of all breached records (though, arguably, they may be breaching records that are more valuable)

http://www.verizonbusiness.com/resources/reports/rp_data-breach-investigations-report-2012_en_xg.pdf

Re:Employer could always be nice

[hey!]

As for still having access, I wouldn't know. That would require testing for it.

I've never been fired, but I have left jobs where I had access to sensitive information. What I did was write an distribute memo which listed everything I could think of that I needed to be locked out of, then sat down on my last day with the person who was supposed to do it and made sure it happened.

Protection is a two-way street. Not only does it protect my former employer from me, if anything happens after I leave it makes it less likely suspicion will fall on me. Besides that revenge is a juvenile act. It feels better to do the right thing and move on than to gloat over the power you wield over the people you left behind.