Most workers would happily take corporate data when they leave their employer, an Imperva survey finds.

The majority of workers have plans to take data away from their companies once they resign or are given the boot, research has indicated.

Seven in 10 respondents to an Imperva survey said they would take some kind of data away with them once they left their job, with intellectual property (IP) the most likely kind of information to be swiped.

Over a quarter of respondents claimed they would most likely take IP, whilst almost 20 per cent said they would pilfer customer records.

Almost half of respondents felt they had personal ownership of corporate data.

�This survey refutes the conventional wisdom that insiders are corporate spies or revenge-seeking employees,� explained Imperva CTO Amichai Shulman.

�It seems most employees have no deliberate intention to cause the company any damage. Rather, this survey indicates that most individuals leaving their jobs suddenly believe that they had rightful ownership to that data just by virtue of their corporate tenure.�

It also appeared many firms did not have policies in place to protect their information. Over three-quarters of respondents said either their companies did not have a policy to remove collected data from employees� laptops upon departure, or the workers were unaware of one.

IT PRO recently caught up with Shulman to discuss what he believed the security industry would look like in 2011.

He suggested one of the key trends would be a move by governments to use techniques previously employed by industrial hackers.

In particular, administrations will use more automated distribution mechanisms, Shulman said.

To discuss your companies security needs with one of our security experts, please call 01278 421020 Source: www.itpro.co.uk