With Mass Layoffs Comes The Potential For Mass Misappropriation

Mass layoffs are painful events for employees and employers alike.  But for employers, increasingly more than just personnel are leaving their facilities: researchers estimate that data theft cost businesses $1 trillion in 2008.

In a recent study commissioned by McAfee, Inc., researchers at Purdue University’s Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security (CERIAS) polled 800 executives at businesses with more than $250 million in annual sales.  Of the executives surveyed, 42 percent said that laid off workers were the biggest threat to business caused by the current recession.  Businesses reported losing $4.6 million on average in 2008 as a result of data theft.  McAfee noted that a lot of anecdotal evidence shows that many of the thefts were internal.

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