Few firms conducting security audit, monitoring data 24-7
Despite a series of high-profile incidents in which confidential information on company servers have been compromised, Canadian businesses are leaving themselves increasingly vulnerable to the loss of data and the potential for a privacy breach, according to a recent survey.
Nearly two-thirds (60 per cent) of the small and medium business owners surveyed said they invest less than 10 per cent of their budgets in data security despite the fact that a comparable percentage agree they are concerned with the security and integrity of their business data, found the survey by Primus Business Services.
One-half of respondents reported being concerned with the security of cloud computing with 40 per cent of those who are concerned noting they would feel more secure if cloud services had full unified threat management/firewall protection or if the cloud was a single-tenant environment while 48 per cent listed around-the-clock management and alerting as a key factor in quelling their anxieties.
The majority of businesses polled do not use cloud computing with just 14 per cent using the technology.
Although respondents were concerned about the security of their data, 74 per cent claim to not currently have secure off-site storage for their critical business data, and 72 per cent of respondents do not currently monitor or manage their data on a 24-7 basis.
More than one-half of survey respondents have not invested in the most advanced security solutions and two-thirds (63 per cent) have not worked with an IT security firm to audit their security practices.
