Cable & Wireless has served an injunction against a former executive following the theft of a 100,000 customer database - read more: bbc.co.uk
Sam Gerrans, Senior Technology Consultant at InfoWatch said, "While we must reserve judgment on the woman accused in the case until a court of law brings in a verdict, my question is: where are the court actions against the companies involved? Had they had adequate procedures in place this would never have happened.
"While people can walk off site with private citizens' data they will. Firstly: because while theft of valuable data is physically possible someone will always yield to the temptation - if you don't believe me, leave your keys in your car with the engine running and go for a long walk. Secondly: because data theft just doesn't feel like a crime - not a serious one, maybe like cheating on an exam, but nothing more than that.
"It is up to companies to ensure that data theft is as difficult as possible to commit, and that employees genuinely understand the gravity of such actions."
Sam Gerrans welcomes invitations to write and comment in the English-language press on the information leakage prevention and detection market and related technologies: sam.gerrans@infowatch.com
