With the current trend in unemployment increasing at a rapid rate and no clear signs that the end to this recession is near, the risk and motivation for stealing confidential company information is rising. As reported by CNN, a recent survey conducted by Symantec corporation ( survey results ) revealed that almost 60 percent of ex-employees have admitted to stealing company confidential information, such as a client list.  The results of the survey also indicate that if the companies had implemented better data loss prevention policies and technologies that these types of violations could have easily been prevented. Although I’m not a pessimist by nature, I believe that this trend in ex-employee data theft will likely increase as the recession deepens in 2009 and continues to impact unemployment rates to unheard of levels. Anyway, I’m curious to know what you are doing to protect company confidential information. Is your organization prepared to address these risks?