From Wikipedia

Dispatches - The Data Theft Scandal

Data theft is a growing problem primarily perpetrated by office workers with access to technology such as desktop computers and hand-held devices capable of storing digital information such as flash drives, iPods and even digital cameras. Since employees often spend a considerable amount of time developing contacts and confidential and copyrighted information for the company they work for they often feel they have some right to the information and are inclined to copy and/or delete part of it when they leave the company, or misuse it while they are still in employment.

While most organizations have implemented firewalls and intrusion-detection systems very few take into account the threat from the average employee that copies proprietary data for personal gain or use by another company.^{[citation needed]} A common scenario is where a sales person makes a copy of the contact database for use in their next job. Typically this is a clear violation of their terms of employment.

The damage caused by data theft can be considerable with today's ability to transmit very large files via e-mail, web pages, USB devices, DVD storage and other hand-held devices. Removable media devices are getting smaller with increased hard drive capacity, and activities such as podslurping are becoming more and more common. It is now possible to store 80 GB of data on a device that will fit in an employee's pocket, data that could contribute to the downfall of a business.