BBC reports that the public and private sector have been responsible for more than 700 data breaches in the past 11 months
Keeping data secure is vital to both the private and public sector, as the consequences of having their records exposed can be particularly damaging.
Extensive fines, loss of reputation and a break in continuity are just a small range of the harmful results that a company or organisation can experience after having its information exposed – either through carelessness or by failure to properly protect their details.
With the BBC reporting that over the past 11 months, the private sector has been responsible for a third of all data breaches – 263 cases compared to the 467 reported by public bodies – it appears more needs to be done to improve data security in both areas.
While the figures show that private companies are far less likely to be fined – accounting for only one per cent of all such punishments handed out by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) – they still risk hampering the progression of their business and losing the trust of consumers.
There is a wide variety of services that companies can take advantage of as a means to enhance the protection of their data, and secure online document storage is one of the many ways in which they can step up their security systems.
Indeed, online protection is particularly important given the number of opportunist thieves that look to hack into business networks over the internet, so paying close attention to this aspect is one of the key ways that both the private and public sector could limit the potential for their information being exposed.
"What we are seeing lately is that, because a lot of this [company] data is available via a web browser on a corporate intranet, the criminals are getting access to the intranet and then getting that data through the web browser," said Laura Mather, founder of Silver Tail Systems.
As such, sufficient online data protection could be key to guarding against attacks from internet criminals.