IT staff would resort to haggling, bribery and blackmail to keep jobs

IT staff are so desperate to keep their jobs they would resort to haggling, bribery and blackmail, a survey has shown.

Global Recession and its Effect on Work Ethics, by software provider Cyber-Ark, found more than one-third of IT staff would be willing to take a 25% pay cut and work an 80-hour week to stay employed.

Nearly half said they would use their security clearance to find redundancy lists or bribe a friend to do it for them if they feared for their job, and one in 10 said they would consider blackmailing their boss to keep their job.

Adam Bosnian, vice-president of products, strategy and sales at Cyber-Ark, warned HR departments to reassess security clearance and access to important documents.

“Employers have a right to expect loyalty from their workforce, but this works both ways. In these dark days, when everyone is jittery, especially with layoffs at the top of most corporate agendas, the instinct is to look out for number one,” said Bosnian.

“Our advice is only allow access to sensitive information to those that really need it, lock it away in a digital vault and encrypt the really sensitive data.”

Nearly three-quarters of UK IT workers said it was getting more difficult to steal data, far higher than Europe (46%) or the US (34%).

More than 600 IT staff in the UK, US and Europe were polled.

Meanwhile, rules for councils setting out their responsibilities for storing personal information have been published.