SMEs neglect data protection

Category: Data destruction

13 July, 2012

Small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) are getting more lax about protecting data because they do not think a loss will be very damaging.

Independent research commissioned by Shred-it found that 59 per cent of the SMEs polled said they did not believe data loss would have any impact on their business.

This is an increase of ten per cent on the 2011 study.

More worryingly, a third of SMEs do not have proper storage or data erasure policies for confidential information and a quarter do not offer any training to staff on how to handle data securely.

Furthermore, 23 per cent admitted to having little or no knowledge about the legalities surrounding the storage, management and destruction of data.

"This year's findings are particularly worrying, as they show SMEs becoming increasingly lax about information destruction as they just do not see any consequences for poor security procedures," said Robert Guice, executive vice president, EMEA at Shred-it.

Due to new powers awarded to the Information Commissioners Office, businesses can now face a fine of up to £500,000 for failing to protect data.

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Posted by Polly Button