Nearly three quarters - 71 per cent - of IT leaders have said that the ‘Great Resignation’ has increased security risks in their organisation, according to research from cybersecurity company Tessian.

The ‘Great Resignation’ is an economic trend where many employees are voluntarily resigning from their jobs, which began in early 2021.

The company surveyed over 2,000 employees in UK and US businesses.

The data from Tessian found that 45 per cent of IT leaders have already seen incidents of data exfiltration increase in the last year, which is where people take data with them when they leave their jobs.

The survey said one in three - 29 per cent – of employees it surveyed admitted to having taken data with them when they quit.

Employees in marketing teams are the most likely to take data with them when leaving their job according to Tessian, with 63 per cent of respondents in this department admitting to doing so.

HR was the second most likely department to take data with them according to the survey, with 37 per cent of those employees keeping data, followed by IT teams, where 37 per cent chose to take data with them.

When asked why they took the data when they left the company, the top reason - cited by 58 per cent of the workers Tessian surveyed - was that the information would help them in their new job.

Over half of respondents - 53 per cent - said that because they worked on the document, they believed the information belonged to them, while 44 per cent said they took the data to share it with their new employer.

In addition, 55 per cent of the research’s respondents said that they’re thinking about leaving their jobs in 2022, with two in five - 39 per cent – of workers currently working their notice or actively looking for a new job in the next six months.

“It’s a rather common occurrence for employees in certain roles and teams to take data when they quit their job,” said Josh Yavor, chief information security officer at Tessian. “While some people do take documents with malicious intent, many don’t even realise that what they are doing is wrong.”

“Organisations have a duty to clearly communicate expectations regarding data ownership, and we need to recognise where there might be a breakdown in communication which has led to a cultural acceptance of employees taking documents when they leave. The Great Resignation, and the sharp increase in employee turnover, has exposed an opportunity for security and business leaders to consider a more effective way of addressing insider risk.

“It comes down to building better security cultures, gaining greater visibility into data loss threats, and defining and communicating expectations around data sharing to employees - both company-wide and at departmental level.”

He added: “Being proactive in setting the right policies and expectations is a key step before investing in preventative controls.”

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