FIRMS who fail to encrypt their data are being put at risk by clumsy employees who lose storage devices containing company intelligence, a survey says.
The research, carried out by iStorage, revealed that almost a third of IT professionals admitted to losing portable media devices such as USB sticks and hard drives.
iStorage managing director John Michael said the findings were ‘disappointing and alarming’ and that IT professionals should be setting a better example.
He said: “Despite nearly all of the IT experts we questioned acknowledging data loss to be a serious and growing concern, it seems many are not connecting that to their own data security procedures, with nearly a third admitting to losing a portable device containing confidential data. This is putting themselves and their organisations at risk.”
The results will fire a stark warning to businesses which are being treated more severely recently by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) over breaches to the Data Protection Act.
Earlier this month, the ICO dished out its biggest ever fine – £130,000 – to Powys County Council in Wales after details of a child protection case were sent to the wrong recipient. Earlier in the year, Worcestershire County Council was fined £80,000 and North Somerset Council £60,000 for similar offences.
However, business are being urged to adopt data encryption, which would make any potential thefts or losses insignificant.
In an online article, Venafi CEO Jeff Hudson said: “With data and applications moving to the cloud, where they are fully accessible to all devices and can move from one physical location to another almost instantly, ubiquitous encryption becomes even more important.
“Even if malefactors get their hands on mobile devices (which are relatively easy to steal and compromise), encrypted data makes the thefts trivial.”