Despite the recent raft of GDPR emails, millions of businesses are still failing to store valuable data safely.
Almost a million UK businesses do not backup their company data and a further 2.8 million firms risk losing valuable information by storing electronic copies in the same location as the original version, according to new research from business ISP, Beaming.
The research shows that while most (83%) UK firms backup their data, half save it to servers or storage devices in the same premises, 44% of small businesses, 42% of medium sized firms and 34% of large organisations, store backup information in the same location as it is generated, leaving them vulnerable to loss through theft, fire or malware attack.
Sonia Blizzard, managing director of Beaming said: ‘Our research shows that almost four million UK businesses are vulnerable to data loss from single events and could potentially become unable to operate. Most businesses, particularly at the smaller end, don’t do enough to safeguard their information.
‘The introduction of GDPR has highlighted the need for secure and resilient data storage to mitigate the risk of significant data loss. We’d encourage businesses to think seriously about private cloud or co-location services when it comes to storing highly sensitive data or mission critical applications. These should only be accessed through the most secure forms of connectivity.’
Worryingly 17% of businesses keep no data backups whatsoever and store information only on individual computers and employee devices. Sole traders and micro companies employing less than 10 people are most likely to be guilty of not backing up their data.
Less than a fifth (18%) of businesses currently backup their data to facilities located at least 30 miles from their own premises, the minimum distance recommended by business continuity experts to limit the IT impact of natural disasters. Most of these companies adhering the 30-mile rule are using cloud-base storage services and do not know precisely where their data is held.
