Could your insecurity cost your boss half a million quid?
By Davey Winder in Editorial
Posted in Business, Data Protection, Security on
The answer is, as from the start of this week, a bloody big YES. Although according to a survey by Cyber-Ark some 65 percent of people are ignorant to the fact, the Information Commissioner’s Office has been granted new powers which came into effect on April 6th and these allow for fines of up to £500,000 if a business has insufficient security in place and this leads to a ‘deliberate or negligent’ breach of personal data.
The study of some 500 city workers uncovered an amazing level of ignorance amongst employees regarding the fines and the Data Protection Act rules which could lead to them. The fact that 65 percent said nothing had ever been mentioned to them could leave directors up to their neck in the smelly stuff in the event of a breach. The ICO reckons that it will certainly consider whether a breached organisation has taken ‘reasonable steps’ to prevent it from occurring.
Interestingly, some 71 percent of respondents reckoned that after they had been made aware of the financial implications to their employers they would be more careful when it comes to data handling. So maybe if you haven’t done so already you should be getting a memo out to all staff ASAP.
Especially if, as was the case with 64 percent of those asked, your employees carry customer data around with them on mobile devices. 38 percent of them admitting that data is protected by sweet FA, and only 50 percent have even a password, with just a measly 12 percent using encryption of any kind.
Adam Bosnian, vice president of products and strategy for Cyber-Ark Software commented says “people increasingly understand the need to protect their data, but for some reason it’s not always top of the CISO’s priority list – and it should be. We have been blown away by these findings especially to discover that, with a £500,000 fine hanging over UK directors as of the 6th April, workers are walking about with unprotected customer records. Education is one piece of the puzzle in making sure that those people who do have access to privileged data are responsible with it and recognise the vital role they play in an organisation’s compliance obligations. Organisations also need to control privileged users and accounts to protect sensitive information, such as customer data, from navigating its way into the wrong hands”.
Rated: 100% (2 votes)
Loading ...Comment by Janice Taylor-Gaines - April 9, 2010 on 5:54 pm
In the realm of risk, unmanaged possibilities become probabilities: Most breaches are due to a lagging business culture. As CIO, I’m always looking for ways to help my teams. Required reading is “I.T. WARS: Managing the Business-Technology Weave in the New Millennium.” I like to pass along things that work, hoping good ideas make their way to me.
Pingback by - April 12, 2010 on 11:20 am
[…] of punishing new powers for the Information Commissioners Office regarding data loss, with fines of up to £500,000 for those found to be neglectful in the light of a data breach, only helps to focus attention on […]
Comment by armchairanalyst - July 15, 2010 on 1:42 pm
Hrrm. Would that fine be per breach? Or a single fine where multiple systemic boneheadedness was occurring?
Thats a rather good case for as little security as you can get away with. In the knowledge you pay a half mil naughty tax if it all goes pear-shaped for your company.
Bring on the Voodoo IT consultants.
Trackback by - February 9, 2012 on 8:44 am
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