Study Finds Insurers' Data Walks Off With Laid Off Employees

A survey of laid off employees from the insurance sector and other industries has found that 59 percent stole company data when they departed and 67 percent used confidential information to help secure a new job.

The findings were released by the Ponemon Institute research consulting firm in Traverse City, Mich. in a study titled "Jobs at Risk = Data at Risk," based on a survey of 1,945 people who were laid off, fired or quit their jobs in the past 12 months.

Twenty percent of those in the poll came from the financial services industry, which included the insurance sector

Of the 945 people surveyed, 37 percent said they were asked to leave, 38 percent said they had found a new job and 21 percent moved on because they anticipated lay-offs.

Ponemon said its study revealed that companies are doing a very poor job at preventing former employees from stealing data, with only 15 percent of respondents' companies reviewing or performing an audit of the paper and/or electronic documents employees are taking.

If they conduct a review, 45 percent said it was not complete and 29 percent said it was superficial.

In the insurance community, allegations of data theft by employees recently gained prominence when the brokerage Arthur J. Gallagher sued Edgewood Partners Insurance Center accusing the company of raiding its firm for staff and "associated use of confidential Gallagher data to unfairly compete and steal millions of dollars of business." A confidential settlement was reached last month in the case

The research firm said is surprising to learn that 68 percent of those polled said they planned to use such information as e-mail lists, customer contact lists and employee records that they stole from their employer.

"Not only is this putting customer and other confidential information at risk for a data breach, but it could affect companies' competitiveness and future revenues," Ponemon advised.

The study found that employees who do not trust their former employer to act with integrity and fairness are more likely to take the data. Sixty-one percent of respondents who were negative about the company they left took data while only 26 percent of those with a favorable view took data, said Ponemon.

The most susceptible documents to theft, said Ponemon, are e-mail lists and hardcopy files. Over 60 percent of respondents took e-mail history and hard copy files. Of least interest to employees are PDF files (9 percent), access database files (8 percent) and source code (3 percent).

Employees are stealing data in plain sight the survey found. It noted that most employees (61 percent) who stole valuable customer and other business information are taking it in the form of paper documents or hard files.

The next most popular means of transferring data was found to be by downloading information onto a CD or DVD (53 percent ) or onto a USB memory stick (42 percent) followed by sending documents as attachments to a personal e-mail account (38 percent).

Layoff announcements in the insurance sector have been continuous over the past 12 months as they have been elsewhere. Last November alone 5,459 jobs were cut, according to data from Challenger Gray & Christmas Inc., a Chicago-based outplacement firm.