We are constantly reminded of the seriousness of Data Protection in the field of debt management and IVA advice and of the dire consequences that could occur through ‘misplaced' data and identity fraud so, as you can imagine, I was somewhat shocked to hear that a study of 945 adults who were fired, laid off or lost their jobs in America last year showed that 60% of them stole company data and took it with them! I find myself wondering how this can be happening in such a supposedly security conscious nation as the USA. The first question is why so many people are apparently doing this and the second is how it could possibly happen.

The answer to the first question appears to be fear and anxiety, fear for their future employment and anxiety as to how they will solve their debt problems if they have no job. They may just feel that the data they have taken with them could be used as a bargaining tool to get a new job with another company. Some, if they had the resources, could use the data to set up their own business and I suppose others could just sell the data to their former employers' rivals just to get even.

As for why this is happening, apart from the fact that many US companies apparently regard it as part of the everyday cost of doing business, Kevin Rowney of Symantec seems to think that the security procedures are so focused on one thing that another is overlooked. He says that the problem is that industry has concentrated on ‘firewalls, access, controls and end point security systems'. Well, that is good I would have thought but, as Kevin Rowney also points out, ‘The end result is that most security teams are protecting the containers not the data itself'. At the end of the day it is the data itself which needs to be protected at all costs.

A very good point – it's all very well keeping outsiders out but the insiders still have access, they need it to do their job!