30-something men most likely to steal company secrets

The typical profile of an insider likely to be a threat to an organisation's intellectual property is 37 years old, male and probably a programmer, engineer or manager.

That's according to new research undertaken on behalf of security firm Symantec, which has been used to create a profile for the insider IP thief.

According to Symantec's research, nearly two-thirds of those that commit IP theft will already have another job lined up. Three-quarters of insider thefts involve data the thief has authorisation to access.

Typically IP thieves target trade secrets, business information such as billing details and price lists, source code, proprietary software, and business plans.

“In this era of global markets, companies and government entities of all sizes are recognising the ever-expanding challenges of protecting their intellectual property from rivals,” said Francis deSouza, group president of enterprise products and services at Symantec.

The report by Symantec was based on work carried out by Dr Eric Shaw and Dr Harley Stock.