Employees remove confidential data at an alarming rate

At least one in two employees believes it's acceptable to remove confidential data from the office. Sixty-eight percent of employees aged 18-34 say it's acceptable, and 50% of those 55 and older believe it's okay, according to a 2012 FireTrek document security survey of 2,625 Americans age 18 and older.

The online poll conducted by Harris Interactive found that 90% of adults think that other employees are removing confidential documents from the workplace and 79% believe that doing so is grounds for termination. Employees who removed confidential data from work did so said it was okay under certain circumstances. Specifically:
-- When the boss says it's okay: 48%
-- To finish a late-night project from home instead of having to stay at the office: 32%
-- To work over the weekend or while on vacation: 30%
-- When it is confidential information about themselves: 16%
-- When it can be brought back to the office before the boss knows it was gone: 2%
-- To show something to family or friends who promise to keep it confidential: 2%

Loose regard for confidential data has combined with free abundant disk space, the fluidity of the Internet, and simple drag-and-drop cloud repositories to create a new type of data loss right under the nose of IT.

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