This is just one of the cases where it was possible to recover what was stolen. However, practically there are a lot of unresolved cases that are burdening the companies resulting in huge financial loss. The theft of data could involve incidents ranging from stealing customer's records to sell them to other companies for marketing purpose to the most serious ones mentioned in the above case. This has led to companies focus on improving data security.

Need for Data Security in the Middle East

Data security is a means of protecting your data from unauthorised access through encryption. In the absence of security, you run the risk of having your data stolen, misused, corrupted or altered.

Lack of a secured system to protect the data and the latest techniques used by the hackers to procure important information have become a serious concern to a lot of companies in the Middle East. This affects not only the petrochemical industry but is also becoming an increasing threat to other industries in the region as well. In order to curb it, the Middle East countries are spending millions towards data security. They rank second only to the US when it comes to spending money for improving the e-security.

Unethical Practices

In spite of the risk involved, people still engage in data stealing due to human greed. Some of the common reasons that make people resort to data theft are as follows:

• Hacking by Companies: Companies have heavy competition with each other to reach the top. In the process, they might be ready to go to any extreme and might even hire professional hackers. Hackers are computer experts who would be able to breach the competitor's network and access their database. By doing so, these companies can procure the competitors? business model, technology and trade secrets to use them to their advantage.



• Employees? Notoriety: Depending upon their job profile, some of the employees working in a company might have access to sensitive information. Although they might have signed a non-disclosure agreement, they might still be tempted to violate the terms in it and resort to data stealing due to any of the following reasons:


1.To sell it to the competitor for huge financial gains
2.For using the data if they decide to start their own business. This way they can save time and money in coming up with a new model.
3.Things might get worse if an employee from the top-level management such as the director or a manager decides to quit the company and start their own business. They might sneak away the information pertaining to clients and suppliers and could direct them to their business instead. They could also take away the information if they are switching companies.
4.Some of the employees might be unhappy with their boss or employer and try to modify or destroy important information.

Unfortunately, the technological advancements such as e-mail, pen drive, etc. have made life easier for these lawbreakers. They could just copy, e-mail or upload the sensitive information and walk away easily.

Tackling the Issue

The punishment for data stealing could vary from the termination of service to the employee getting arrested, depending upon the severity of the issue. Unless the company takes serious steps to track and control data theft, it would encourage others within the organisation to follow suit. With the use of computer forensic technology, it is possible to track the operations carried out by each user on his system. By using this technology, you could collect sufficient evidence to locate the person who involves in data theft. It also serves as a proof to indict the criminals. Computer forensics also helps to recover any corrupted information and increases the security of the network to prevent unauthorised access by the employees.

The Final Note

As they say, prevention is better than cure. So, instead of wasting your money and energy after your important data is stolen, it is always better to have an up-to-date technology for data security. This is because although you might be able to punish the offender, your trade secrets and business plans might have already gone to the wrong hands in the absence of a secured system.