Leaks undermining 20% of firms

ONE-IN-FIVE Irish businesses are being seriously undermined by the leaking of confidential information by disloyal workers.

The shock findings are based on new research into legal, financial and professional services areas and the Irish public sector.

“Loss of confidential information can affect any business and that the implications are costly, embarrassing and most importantly damaging to your business”, warned Paul Kearns, general manager, Shred-it and Filestores, whose company carried out the survey.

“Irish businesses need to wake up to the importance of protecting their information from being lost and stolen”, he said.

The findings confirmed 20% of the firms admitted to workers leaking confidential information from inside their business.

The majority (79%) of Irish businesses expressed confidence that their current approach to document storage was secure.

A disturbing 17% of the businesses admitted having lost sensitive confidential information, including paper and electronic files, USB keys and laptops in the past three years.

“Generally in times of economic recession when companies are faced with redundancies, there is a heightened risk of disaffected employees leaking sensitive business information,” said Mr Kearns.

As many as half admitted to never having checked how third party suppliers, such as legal and financial advisors, treat their confidential information.

And 19% of financial institutions said they lost sensitive data on numerous occasions over the past three years.

“We have all heard of the recent cases of banks losing customer information. These examples prove that loss of confidential information can affect any business and that the implications are costly, embarrassing and most importantly damaging to your business,” said Mr Kearns.

The main highlights of the research of professional services, financial services, law firms and state organisations are as follows:

L*Almost half (44%) of businesses admitted they should do more to protect their business from sensitive business information being stolen

* Nearly one-third (28%) have no policy in place for the storing and destroying of confidential files.