Free benchmarking service for personal data security and protection from DQM Group

(30/03/2009)

In a bid to improve data security standards in business and the public sector, DQM Group has launched www.datameasures.com, a site dedicated to raising awareness of data security best practice, and providing UK organisations with a free facility for benchmarking their own standards against industry norms.

DQM Group decided to provide British business and public sector organisations with a no-cost benchmarking service, following recent well-publicised data security breaches that have caused a major downturn in public confidence over the care with which personal information is held and managed.

In order to create the benchmarking tool in www.datameasures.com, DQM Group interviewed hundreds of organisations about their current procedures for managing and securing personal data. The resulting information has been organised into a database which sets the benchmark norm against which organisations can understand their current position, strengths and weaknesses, in order to start mapping out an achievable improvement strategy in the quest for best practice standards.

Public bodies and private companies simply have to fill in a questionnaire on www.datameasures.com about their data security practices. The site then compares these answers with market and best practice norms, in order to return a detailed benchmark profile.

Adrian Gregory, Chief Executive of DQM Group, comments, “The time for talking about personal data security standards is over; it’s now time for action. Data breaches in the private and public sectors are causing real worries and falling confidence amongst the public, and this must be reversed. People are increasingly willing to hand over their personal details so that companies and government can improve and personalise the services they receive. But this means that organisations holding large volumes of personal information must take the responsibility of safeguarding that data very seriously indeed.

“Many improvements to data security standards can be made quite easily. That means organisations who fail to address the issue really are scoring a massive own goal. With the introduction of www.datameasures.com, there is no longer an excuse for private and public bodies not to assess where they stand and to start looking to improve where necessary. In any case, it is very likely that new powers will be granted to the Information Commissioner to levy substantial fines for poor data security standards. When this happens, we can expect to see laggard organisations suffering from the same kind of reputational damage felt by non-compliant firms in the highly regulated financial sector. For many industries this is a very serious issue indeed, as any substantial dent in customer confidence often translates into defections, and then commercial damage to the bottom line.”

Related topics:  Data management and data security 

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