Last month I talked about a report from McAfee, Inc. that discussed the huge amount of intellectual property that gets stolen from companies. A new report from the Ponemon Institute confirms this data. According to this report, more than half of workers that are let go from their employers take confidential data and intellectual property with them as they head out the door.

Here are some interesting statistics from the report (we all love statistics):

• 945 individuals who were laid off, fired or quit their jobs in the past 12 months were surveyed.
• 59% admitted to stealing company data.
• 67% used their former company’s confidential information to help get a new job.
• 61% of respondents who disliked their company took data.
• 26% of those who liked their company still took data.
• 79% of those who took data rationalized it rather than call it wrong.
• 24% claimed to still have access to their former employer’s computers after they left.

For more information you can read the Network World article.