Case Studies

Guide by watchdog

by msecadm4921

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has published a new guide for small and medium sized businesses, showing steps they can take to help make their IT systems safe and secure. The guide, which covers topics such as physical security, anti-virus defences and employee awareness, can help small businesses keep personal data secure, and avoid a serious data breach that could see the ICO impose fines of up to £500,000.

 

 

Information Commissioner, Christopher Graham, said: “Since November 2010 the Information Commissioner’s Office has had to serve civil monetary penalties totalling over £1.5 million on organisations that failed to take the necessary measures to keep peoples’ information secure. While we recognise that the biggest companies and organisations will have many of these strategies already in place and have spent a great deal of money on securing their IT systems, smaller enterprises often tell us that they would benefit from simple and clear advice specifically designed for them.

 

“This guide aims to support these companies by providing a starting point and recommendations that cost little to adopt, but can significantly reduce the risks of a serious data loss and the reputational and financial damage that can result.”

 

The guide includes a checklist, as well as more detailed advice on:

 

securing data on the move;

keeping you and your systems up to date;

keeping an eye out for problems;

knowing what you should be doing; and

minimising the data you keep.

 

Mr Graham added: “Following this guidance is not just about minimising risk. Businesses that prioritise the safety of their customers’ personal data will have a real competitive advantage.”

 

Mike Cherry, Policy Chairman, Federation of Small Businesses, said: “It’s important that the ICO have published this guidance specifically for small businesses. Good IT and data security should be part and parcel of good business practice and businesses should think about the simple steps that they can put in place to achieve this. The guidance should help businesses do this.”

 

Recent research by an IT security firm suggested that more than a third (36pc) of SMEs struggle with applying consistent security policies across all offices.  One in five of those surveyed also admitted that they’d been infected with malware over the past 12 months with respondents indicating that there is a need for SMEs to re-evaluate the way the tackle information security.

 

Ollie Hart, head of public sector UK & Ireland at Sophos commented: “It’s excellent that the ICO is taking a proactive approach to help out the vast array of SMEs across the UK. As our recent survey shows, many struggle with security and are more constrained by time and resources than larger organisations.  However, SMEs are just as vulnerable to cybercrime, and attacks on these businesses can potentially have a collective effect on the UK economy.”

 

“The key to SME security is to make policies and technologies as simple and accessible as possible, but this guidance feels like it’s aimed at those who already have a considerable level of IT and security awareness. While this may be the case for some SMEs, many smaller companies do not have this level of knowledge and expertise in place. So while this guide is certainly a great step in the right direction in helping companies of all sizes to protect their corporate information, the ICO needs to ensure that it keeps jargon to a minimum as it continues to educate the vast array of UK businesses and the intellectual property they possess.” 

To see the full report into SME security visit: www.sophos.com/networksecuritysurvey

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