Data Theft Paper

Data Theft Paper

Data theft is when information is unlawfully copied or taken from a business or individual. This information is user information such as passwords, social security numbers, credit card information, other personal information, and confidential corporate information. Within this paper several examples will be giving as, I explore how data theft has affected individuals and organizations. What can organizations and individuals do to protect them from becoming victims of this type of fraud. When stolen data happens such as people’s identities or an organization’s information the potential harm is huge with major economic and legal implications. The worst thing about the data theft is that it can remain undetected.

It is devastating when you find out as a boss that an ex-employee has stolen the company information for personal gain, profit, or to ruining the company completely. A survey released by Information Week (informationweek.com) and Accenture in July 2007 showed that 89 percent of 1,010 U.S. companies still felt vulnerable to data theft (McNurlin, Sprague, & Bui, 2009). For example the Boeing Company had an ex-employee who illegally downloaded thousands of pages of significant business documents to his computer. It was anticipated if any of those documents had gotten into the wrong hands of Boeing’s competitors it could have cost them $5 to $14 billion dollars (McNurlin, Sprague, & Bui, 2009). In 2008, a data theft survey was done and more than 60 percent of U.S. workers who left their employers took some data with them. According to a February 24 article in The Economist. In the recession, many laid-off employees who feel like they have nothing to lose by walking off with data they no longer have any rights to use (Crews & Wiseman, 2009). Nearly all healthcare organizations responding to a survey -- 96% -- reported that patient or related information has been lost, stolen, or otherwise compromised within the last two years. The number of data breaches involving protected health information rose by 32% from 2010, according to interview data published online by the independent privacy and data protection group the Ponemon Institute. Three out of 10 respondents (29%) said a data breach resulted in medical identity theft -- up 26%. And two out of five respondents (41%) blamed data breaches on employee negligence -- not following data-handling procedures, sloppy mistakes, and using unsecure electronic devices -- and 49% reported lost or stolen devices. Third-party errors were responsible for 46% of breaches (Medpagetoday, 2010). The issues of insider attackers are becoming quite a test. According to Greenemeier, criminals inside the organization are not the most common security problem (McNurlin, Sprague, & Bui, 2009). Attacks by insiders of a company can be expensive and tremendously damaging to the company’s reputation. Some examples of possible criminal acts