If there’s one thing finance folks know can cost a company money, it’s workers who cut corners, break the rules or just flat out cheat. And now there’s growing evidence that some of the organization’s most critical employees may be honing their deceptive practices in their college years:

Tech students.

The good news is enrollment in U.S. undergrad computer science programs is at an all-time high.

The bad news: The field’s seeing a disproportionate rise in its number of dishonest students.

The cheating trend’s been noticed by computer science programs at several major universities.

For example, 23% of the academic dishonesty cases at Stanford reportedly involve computer science students — even though those students make up just 6.5% of the total student body.

At the University of Washington, around half of the honor code violations involve computer science tests and assignments.

An estimated 1% or 2% of assignments in computer science classes are identified as violating the school’s policies in some way.

Why are tech students more prone to cheat? Explanations range from the unique pressures those students face, especially those from foreign countries, to the automated tools professors can use to detect plagiarized code.

The trend could spell trouble for companies looking to hire recent graduates for their IT departments.

In the real world, that kind of dishonesty could end up getting the company sued for intellectual property or privacy violations.

To avoid hiring folks with potential ethics problems, experts recommend thoroughly checking references to learn about previous discipline issues and getting more details about the candidate’s performance.

Also, when you dig for specifics in an interview, keep an eye out for inconsistencies that could tell you the person isn’t as knowledgeable as the credentials on the application would have you believe.

For finance folks who oversee the IT operation, it might be a good idea to make sure you’re watching over the shoulder of your CIO or IT manager to make sure all proper safeguards are in place with their staff.

Tags: cheating, computer science, grads, IT, students, techies