Strategic Sourcing Europe

This is the amazing overall result of a serious security-oriented study commissioned by enterprise rights management company  Liquid Machines. Conducted online, more than 900 professionals, with 84% from the US, were polled over a one-month period earlier this year. 

Sharon Gaudin, from the InformationWeek , reviewed the study and wrote a full article about it. Below are some excerpts which struck me the most:

“Of the 45% of respondents who said they’ve taken data with them when they’ve left a job, some said they simply e-mailed data to a personal address. Others said they walked out the door with the data, usually on a peripheral storage device, tucked in a bag or pocket. Eighty-seven percent said they’re allowed to use flash drives, while 69% can use external hard drives. Even MP3 players, which are used by 46% of respondents, can be used as external hard drives.

The study also showed that with so many admitting to taking data with them when they leave jobs, it’s no surprise that 53% of respondents said they suspect their companies’ intellectual property is being used by the competition. Among manufacturing employees, a whopping 71% said their competition has used their companies’ intellectual property. Technology employees agree with this statement 63% of the time.

About 42% of respondents said their companies’ security is non-existent, not strong enough, the wrong type, or too restrictive. A full 48% of those working in technology blame poor security. “