The investigation of Egress Software Technologies has discovered that 24 % of UK workers have purposefully distributed the company sensitive information among rivals and new or former workers.

The company interviewed 2000 employees whose jobs consist in often use of emails to cover all the points of email misuse in the firm.

Most respondents admitted they would delete emails if they contain information they shouldn`t share with someone outside the company. 37 % said they don`t often check the content of a message before sending.

Poor attention to details leads to awful consequences: one in 10 said he mistakenly sent confidential information such as bank details or sensitive information about an employee to a person he shouldn`t. And 40% had also sent some information to recipient even with abusive expressions or vulgar jokes.

What are the reasons to be so inattentive? 68 % admitted haste as the main problem while 8 % were actually drunk when sending emails in error. Most workers blamed the autofill technology for a wrongly selected recipient.

Tony Pepper, CEO and co-founder, Egress, emphasized that email usage by UK employees leaves much to be desired. Humiliation of unknown recipient may lead to one`s flushing with shame, but sending confidential information by mistake may result in the serious data breach.

Jenny Radcliffe, social engineer, speaker and host of The Human Factor podcast said that companies should involve filters for large files or extended distribution lists, so users cannot add many recipients to an email without at least a warning message or a special check in order to avoid possible risks.

Harm and malicious intent will lead to distribution of information in one case or another and the best protection for a company consists in good knowledge of your employees. Be fully aware of a normal and unusual behavior of your workers and protect your company against awful consequences.