IT departments that fail to revoke access rights to critical systems risk exposing their firms to security breaches by former employees, new research has found.

More than half the UK workforce would be prepared to seek revenge on former employers by exploiting continued access to corporate systems if they were unhappy at losing their job, according to research by software vendor Novell.

Security experts stressed that this shows the importance of having good policies in place to deal with staff leaving and to provide legal protection.

Half of those questioned indicated that they would continue to access the corporate IT network, and 55 per cent would continue to use their company laptop if it was not taken back.

More worryingly, six per cent said that they would delete important files, and four per cent would let a virus loose in the corporate email system.

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