Nearly 8 percent of employees in charge of handling classified corporate data have experiences in taking such data outside, according to a survey by anti-virus software maker Trend Micro Inc.
The survey was conducted from June 23 to 25 on corporate employees in charge of data management, given the recent case of Benesse Corp. in which personal information on millions of customers was illegally stolen by a man with access to the company's database.
The survey drew 1,038 responses. According to the results, 28.5 percent said they have accidentally deleted or damaged data, the No. 1 answer.
Next came cases in which respondents provided access to data outside their jurisdictions, given by 13.8 percent.
The third most common response was taking tightly guarded corporate data outside the workplace, admitted by 7.9 percent. Most said they took such data in order to work at home.
The survey found other cases of data mismanagement, such as accidentally sharing data with others, to which 5.9 percent of the respondents admitted, and intentionally taking data when they quit their jobs, at 4.4 percent.
Trend Micro said companies need to tighten their guard on their database by limiting access even by data-security employees.
In Benesse's case, suspect Masaomi Matsuzaki was employed as a temporary worker at a database management contractor. The data he allegedly stole included the names and addresses of children and their birth dates.