As with vandalism, the loss of important hardware, software or data can have significant effects on an organisation’s
effectiveness. Theft can be divided into two basic categories: physical theft and data theft. Physical theft, as the term implies,
involves the theft of hardware and software. Data theft normally involves making copies of important files without causing
any harm to the originals. However, if the original files are destroyed or damaged, then the value of the copied data is
automatically increased. Service organisations are particularly vulnerable to data theft since their activities tend to rely
heavily upon access to corporate databases. Imagine a competitor gaining access to a customer list belonging to a sales
organisation. The immediate effect of such an event would be to place both organisations on an essentially even footing.
However, in the long term, the first organisation would no longer enjoy a competitive edge and might, ultimately, cease
to exist. Both data theft and physical theft can take a number of different forms. As an example, there has been growing
concern over the theft of customer information, such as credit card details, from company web sites.