The survey - carried out by Trend Micro amongst around 1,600 end users in the US, UK, Germany and Japan earlier this year - found that most employees were found to be generally imprudent and ambivalent when it comes to their company's overall security health.
The report, which took in responses from small business and home users of the internet, found that risky practices and attitudes were customary, regardless of country.
Beginning with confidential corporate information, roughly 50% of those surveyed by Trend Micro admitted to revealing divulging employee-private data through an insecure web mail account.
End users in the US and UK, meanwhile, were more likely to admit to having leaked confidential company data than end users in Japan, even though they were the most likely to indicate knowing what type of company data is confidential or not.
Interestingly, mobile workers are reported to be more of a liability than their desktop counterparts. Across all countries, 60% of mobile workers versus 44% of stationary workers admitted to having sent out company confidential information via instant messaging, web mail or social media applications.
In the US, Trend Micro says that laptop end users are far more likely to perform non-work related activities whilst on their company's network than desktop users: 74% of laptop users said they checked personal email, whilst 58% said they browsed websites unrelated to work.
Even with corporate security and policies in place, companies can be sure that their employees will find a way to exert their online freedom.
Roughly one out of ten users in each country admitted to overriding their corporate security in order to access restricted websites.
Germany ranked the worst for this with 12% of its end-users admitting to tinkering with corporate security; this is followed by the UK at 11% and the US plus Japan both having 8%.
Commenting on the figures, David Perry, Trend Micro's global director of edication, said: "These results might be disturbing to IT administrators and small business owners, but they're not all that surprising, especially to those of us who work within the security industry."
"The key thing to remember is that there is still potential for redress through the right security technology designed specifically for your company's needs, as well as supportive, consistent employee education that drives awareness", he said.