Many employees would sell corporate information, finds study

A survey of more than 3,400 employees in the United States, Great Britain and Australia finds corporate loyalty be damned, your company's data may be on its way out the door when certain employees resign or get laid off.

The research, conducted by Harris Interactive for security firm SailPoint, found a significant number of employees polled admitted to misusing using company data, several in one part of the world even said they would be comfortable selling proprietary and sensitive information for profit.

[Also see: The three types of insider threat]

Among the findings:

* Of those polled, 22 percent of US, 29 percent of Australian and 48 percent of British employees who have access to their employer's or client's private data indicated they would feel comfortable doing something with that data, regardless if that access was intentional or accidental.

* Many said they would forward electronic files to a non-employee, with 10 percent of Americans, 12 percent of Australians and 27 percent of British employees indicating they would do so.

* Nine percent of Americans, 8 percent of Australians and 24 percent of Britons admitted they would copy electronic data and files to take with them when they leave a company.

* The survey asked if an employee would feel comfortable profiting from proprietary information by selling it on the Internet. While only 5 percent of American and 4 percent of Australian employees with access who answered the question selected this response, 24 percent of British employees with access said they would feel comfortable selling data.