UK businesses lose £billions in Intellectual Property (IP) theft

Research reveals 69.6% of blue-collar workers have stolen corporate documents and information.

This is the headline finding of a recent survey which questioned 400 business professionals about their attitudes to IP theft. The research, conducted by Ibas, a computer forensics specialist, found that:

• 69.6% of business professionals have stolen some form of corporate IP from their employer when leaving a job;
• The most commonly stolen forms of IP include: email address books (taken by 54.3% of leavers); sales proposals / presentations (32.6%) and customer databases / contact information (30.4%);
• The most commonly used method for stealing IP is to send electronic copies of documents and files to a personal email account;
• 58.7% think that taking IP is as, if not more, acceptable as exaggerating an insurance claim to cover the excess charge; only 28.2% think that IP theft is completely unacceptable;
• The most common justification for IP theft was that the person had created the documents / files stolen and felt they partly belonged to them.

** Additional results from the survey can be found in the Notes to Editors section **

The research also revealed that, on average, women are around 20% more likely than men to feel that taking documents and files is acceptable given the same scenario. Men, however, are 28.6% more likely to actually go ahead and steal corporate IP.

According to the survey, the biggest deterrent against taking IP when a person leaves a job would be having to sign a legal document in an exit interview stating categorically that they hadn't taken electronic copies of any corporate documents or files.

"UK businesses are losing £billions worth of Intellectual Property every year," said Simon Janes, UK managing director at Ibas. "Unless urgent action is taken, the problem will only get worse as Information Technology is making it easier and easier to steal IP. 30 years ago it would have been virtually impossible to steal a filing cabinet's worth of documents. Today, however, employees can quickly and easily copy the same amount of information onto a disk and slip it into their pocket on the way out of the door."

"Businesses need to toughen up their internal policies and make sure every employee is aware of the action that will be taken if they are caught stealing IP. Companies must have an incident management plan in place and bring in computer forensics experts to properly investigate suspected cases of IP theft to ensure that guilt can be proven beyond any reasonable doubt," added Janes.

About Ibas
Established in 1978, Ibas is one of the world's leading companies in Data Recovery, Data Erasure and Computer Forensics. Ibas UK delivers professional services based on unparalleled technical expertise and experience. Ibas offers its services internationally and has a team of highly educated and experienced investigators. Using unique computer investigation methods, Ibas uses its expertise efficiently and cost-effectively.