A recent study by Symantec shows that employee theft of employer confidential information is widespread. A summary of the survey is available at www4.symantec.com/marketinginfo/data.  The survey was conducted by a private research institute.  Some of the more alarming results of the study include:

• Approximately 50% of the employees who left or lost their jobs in the past year kept confidential corporate data and 40% of them planned to use it at a new job.
• Most employees do not believe using business data taken from a previous employer is wrong.  According to the study, 56% of employees do not belief it is a crime to use a competitor’s confidential business information.

There is more employers can do to make employees understand what belongs to the company and what does not.  It may be a tougher challenge to get employees to care.