59% of departing employees steal company data, according to a new study.

The Ponemon Institute interviewed 945 employees who were either laid off, fired or quit in the past year. The results were pretty startling:

  • 79% of those who took data admitted they knew they were violating company policy.
  • 67% said they took the information to leverage a new job.
  • 61% took hard-copy documents or files.
  • 24% still had access to the company’s computer system after their departures.

So, what did they take?

  • 65% took e-mail address lists.
  • 45% took non-financial business data.
  • 39% took customer contact lists.
  • 35% took employee records.
  • 16% took company financial data.

Larry Ponemon, the institute’s founder, pointed to a lack of loyalty and telecommuting as possible culprits. “What’s interesting is more and more people seem to feel entitled to information they create on the job, and an increase in mobility in the workforce means many employees don’t have a lasting relationship with their employers,” he said. “Also, as you have more employees working from remote locations and on home computers, the concept of who really controls this data isn’t often clear to people.”

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