Most distrust local authority IT security

Some 85 per cent of people believe that their local authority's computer systems have been hit by a security breach, according to a survey.

The poll, commissioned by security firm Sophos, was completed before this week's news that HM Revenue and Customs had lost personal and financial data on 25 million people.

Some 93 per cent of those surveyed said they were concerned that they didn't know what security measures their local council had in place, while 57 per cent said they don't expect local authorities are doing enough to prevent a breach, by accident or by hackers.

But if such a criminal breach were to happen, 86 per cent of respondents said they would blame the local authority - not the hackers.

"One of the major challenges facing the public sector is that an increasing number of its services are going online for the public to use - great idea, but only if you have a proven security strategy in place that your users believe in. Granting open access without one could dent public confidence as well as put the network at risk," said Carole Theriault, senior security consultant at Sophos.

Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed said that the private sector was as bad at data security as the public sector.

Theirault said the HMRC breach was a "revelation" and that the government must "do more to protect this information whether it's online on a CD, or wherever - after all, it is the general public's data at risk."

Security firms from across the UK have stepped up to condemn the HMRC for the lost data, saying prevention would have been easy and inexpensive.

Email to a friend

Print this page

Social Bookmark this article: What is this?

Digg

Delicious

Reddit

StumbleUpon

Slashdot

Google

Facebook