Confidential Company Data Often Departs With Employees

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Have you ever stolen confidential data from your employer? Are you planning to use it at your next job? What kind of dumb ass answers those types of questions honestly?

Employers need to be keeping a closer eye on their confidential data when employees leave for new jobs, a new study finds. Research from Symantec revealed that half of employees worldwide who left or lost their jobs in the last 12 months kept confidential corporate data, with 40 percent of those planning to use it with their new employer.
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Nope. That will get you shitcanned and prosecuted very quickly where I work.
 
Nope. Even when I don't sign NDA's, I keep that former employers data/information, etc. private. I just have some good ethics when it comes to that stuff. Private information is private. I have access to a lot at my current job that could do a lot of damage if I shared it. Never have I even considered it. It's not my data. There needs to be some ethics in IT, and they need to be followed.
 
Of course if companies didn't now classify EVERYTHING as confidential it might not be as high ... corporations consider every spreadsheet or powerpoint presentation you made confidential these days :rolleyes:
 
The problem is many companies think that your "rolodex" is confidential information. If you are in a trade, it's just happens to be everyone else too. Associates and client lists aren't really confidential if everyone knows who is who in niche markets. Some companies just get butthurt when they loose an awesome employee to a competitor who values them more appropriately.
 
I signed a two-year non-compete agreement with a company I only worked at for 90 days. As per the legally binding agreement I was unable to apply for work in that specific field anywhere in the state I was currently residing in. The only confidential data I "stole" from that company was just the knowledge that the CEO was completely batshit crazy.
 
Nope, wouldn't do it and wouldn't use any info at the next company. Why? Because if your new employer realizes you're an unethical bastard who has no problem stealing info from a former employer and handing it to a competitor, how are they supposed to know you won't do the same thing to them?

And yes, there is lots of confidential info that everyone knows.
 
My company I make it VERY explicit that formulations of products we make up in the lab are NOT to be released, nor taken to another company after the employee's termination. Everything is a trade-secret, and there will be legal consequences if that information is shared to another company.

I don't dick around the fact that what we do in the lab is very time consuming, and requires a lot of expertise and knowledge to come up with stable and usable formulations. All of my employees fully recognize that I treat them very well, and respect them and in turn I deserve their respect to my wishes of keeping such data confidential.

Of course, saying that I would have no hesitation of causing a lot of legal grief to anyone sharing critical data, during or after employment. Some of these formulations have taken a LOT of $$$$ and time to perfect....I feel like i'm Willy F'ing Wonka. ;)
 
LOL ... They're going to worry about it when they LEAVE the job!?!? They should be worrying about their confidential data WHILE they are employed there. It's amazing what a smartphone can do (i.e take pictures of anything and everything and send that up into the cloud and the Internet to be disseminated).
 
The REAL truth is CEOs often go from one corporate job to another more often than the 20-30 loyal employee. Therefore, they (CEOs) are the ones who steal confidential data not employees (unless they have been unfairly treated or shorted guaranteed benefits). :eek:
 
The REAL truth is CEOs often go from one corporate job to another more often than the 20-30 year loyal employee. Therefore, they (CEOs) are the ones who steal company confidential data, not employees (unless they have been unfairly treated or shorted guaranteed benefits). When was the last time anyone has seen or heard a CEO achieving 20 or 30 years working solely for one company? :D
 
Only thing I left with from a job I had in 2000, was the pure joy of hearing Homer Simpson's rendition of the Flintstones song, at full blast from the one speaker connected to my office computer (and I hid the volume controls with Tweak UI...I also hid Tweak UI), and some email addresses of friends at the job.

And the comedy value of finding out my replacement killed the entire network two weeks into the job.
 
You don't want your employees leaving with your confidential data?
How about treating them well enough that they don't WANT to leave?
 
bucket said:
I signed a two-year non-compete agreement with a company I only worked at for 90 days. As per the legally binding agreement I was unable to apply for work in that specific field anywhere in the state I was currently residing in. The only confidential data I "stole" from that company was just the knowledge that the CEO was completely batshit crazy.
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I understand the need for non compete agreements but any employer should include a payment during the non compete period or a healthy severance package.
 
fdiaz78 said:
I understand the need for non compete agreements but any employer should include a payment during the non compete period or a healthy severance package.
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draconian non-competes such as these typically do not include such luxurious provisions. this is why, for the most part, non-competes are completely unenforceable in court. however, this may not dissuade a company from attempting to drag you through a legal battle - most don't though, because they know it's a waste of money.
 
On noes! Maybe this problem can be solved by using software supplied by the creators of this survey! :eek:
 
bucket said:
I signed a two-year non-compete agreement with a company I only worked at for 90 days. As per the legally binding agreement I was unable to apply for work in that specific field anywhere in the state I was currently residing in. The only confidential data I "stole" from that company was just the knowledge that the CEO was completely batshit crazy.
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That's not legal or enforceable in many states.
However, based on past experience, that doesn't stop some dirt-bag CEO/owner from interfering or threatening a potential employer.
 
Outamyhead said:
And the comedy value of finding out my replacement killed the entire network two weeks into the job.
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I’ve only had one job I didn't voluntarily leave (long story, but basically the owner didn’t like someone I was doing some non-related side work for)

About 2 months later one of the managers called, asking for help getting the network back up.
Said they would pay me to come in and fix the problem.
The problem was something I could easily fix, but I told them no, as I didn’t trust them to not blame future problems on me.
The funny part was that I had dial-in access (pre-internet days) to the network for months after I left as no one knew enough to change passwords or even unplug the modem.
 
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