Commercial organisations are not immune from data thefts
(15/01/2008)

Commercial organisations should not assume that they are immune from the exposures and damage such as those suffered by the HMRC and NHS following recent data thefts. A new survey reveals that commercial organisations face the same potential dangers as in public sector because many of their employees do not follow corporate policies on data and computer security.

Nearly half of those polled (48 per cent) said data was threatened by employee negligence. Of those suffering security breaches, 43 per cent estimated costs to the business to be between £10,000 and £100,000, while 14 per cent said it had cost them over half a million pounds.

The security of data on laptop computers is most at risk, especially for the 58 per cent of companies that reported laptop thefts in the past 12 months. Surprisingly 80 per cent of businesses still only use traditional asset management tools to protect their machines, which are generally ineffective at protecting data once the asset itself is lost or stolen.

William Pound, senior director, international operations, Absolute Software, said: "In today's increasingly mobile world, it's not surprising that we hear about data losses and security breaches in the media day in and day out. While it is impossible to stop such losses, it is possible to significantly reduce the damage they cause by implementing security solutions that enable companies to take action once these events occur. Absolute's theft recovery and data delete solutions are designed to do just that and have helped thousands of customers eliminate this threat.

"Arguably, with 80 per cent of businesses not taking steps to address this problem, there is still a lack of appreciation of the value of data held on laptops. Companies need to take a layered approach to security, to protect all valuables at all levels to lessen the potential impact on the bottom line. The many recent stories of data loss from stolen/misplaced laptops highlights the continuing potential dangers."

Pound continued: "Laptops often contain secure or personal data and intellectual property. These items have their own value and should be protected as such. A stolen laptop could contain data on your staff, suppliers, potential customers and others. If this data falls into the wrong hands it can be devastating to your business. It will be interesting to see how the Governments' plans to possibly criminalise repeated breaches in data security will affect this current attitude towards security."

Published by Absolute Software, the survey encompassed 100 companies spanning many industries from financial services to manufacturing to retail. The companies ranged in size from 1,000 to over 3,000 employees.