Nearly 90% of businesses have suffered some form of data loss in the past year, according to a new study, despite a rise in spend on data protection measures.
The survey of nearly 2,000 European businesses by CA Technologies found that respondents had struggled to deal with IT systems failure, attacks and human error. Some 88% of those surveyed had suffered application and data loss incidents in the past year, while 63% had experienced an IT systems failure, such as a network, storage or software failure.
More than a third (35%) said they had significantly increased their data protection budgets, while 94% said they had grown ahead of inflation. Forty-one per cent of organisations expected cloud computing to play an increasingly important role in their business continuity plans over the next year.
Chris Ross, vice president EMEA and Asia-Pacific at CA Technologies’ data management customer services unit, said: “While spending on data protection is increasing, policies are failing, so investments need to be smarter.
“Data loss can be caused by a number of factors and organisations should work out the likelihood of each occurring and plan accordingly. This is an important area of the business to focus on as the loss of data can be very disruptive, not to mention costly.”
The move comes amid claims by the Information Commissioner Christopher Graham that the phone hacking scandal is masking the issue of personal data theft.
He said: “There has been a lot of coverage in the media about the section 55 offence – or ‘blagging’ – personal information, as it is known. But this offence is not just about private investigators finding out about celebrities’ hospital appointments.
“This crime has the potential to devastate ordinary people’s lives. The existing paltry fines are not enough to deter. The Government must show they take this problem seriously by commencing the legislation Parliament put in place in 2008. If courts were able to impose the full range of sentences from fines to jail terms, including other sanctions such as community service where appropriate, we would at last have an effective deterrent to stop people engaging in this criminal activity.”
He cited the case of a former Barclays cashier Sarah Langridge, who pleaded guilty to illegally accessing the account details of a customer, against whom her husband had been jailed for a sex attack.
She was fined £800, made to pay £400 costs and a £15 victims’ surcharge in a hearing at Brighton Magistrates Court.
Graham said: “The details of this case are truly shocking. The victim had a harrowing enough experience at the hands of her attacker; the revelation that her attacker’s wife was then rooting through all her personal details, for whatever purpose, would have caused even further distress.
“I note the outcome of this latest case and I remain concerned that the courts are not able to impose the punishment to fit the crime in all cases, because the current penalty for this all-too-common offence is limited to a fine rather than the full range of possible sentences, including prison for the most serious cases.”
