A quarter of employees questioned would steal corporate data even though they knew it was illegal, the company found.
Cyber-Ark interviewed 300 office workers for its second annual Global Recession and Its Effect on Work Ethics survey, along with 300 others in London. 60% of those surveyed said that it was easy to steal sensitive data from the company that they worked for, and most of them said that they would use a portable storage device such as a USB flash drive to do so. Email was the second most popular method for would-be insider cyberthieves, with paper-based theft coming in a close third.
A quarter of respondents said that they would steal company data if they were fired, with roughly the same number vowing to do so if they heard that their jobs were at risk. 28% would use the data to negotiate a new position elsewhere, and as a tool in the new job.
"Without the proper identity and access management solutions in place, many ex-employees can still get into the network to access content and download information long after they left the building", Cyber-Ark pointed out.
Customer and contact details would be the most popular types of data to steal, with 23% opting for that first. 11% would download access and password codes. Product information, plans and proposals were also on the list.