A recent study carried out by Vanson Bourne for online security outfit Sophos looked into end-users behaviour towards security and data protection ahead of the proposed EU reforms in the data protection legislation. It has revealed an alarming number of professionals who are unsure of their organisations’ data protection regulations policies.
The statistics point out that 84 percent of the professionals agree to the need for stronger data protection laws in Europe, however, 77 percent are unsure of their organisations’ compliance policies. A staggering 79 percent were concerned about their personal data while 65 percent were worried about the corporate data.
The study points out that by the end of 2015, many enterprises will have to re-assess their policies in accordance with the revised data protection legislation. 91 percent of the respondents had at least one safeguard in place when it came to protecting personal data, only 59% had antivirus protection, reports the Computer Weekly.
Anthony Merry, Director of data protection at Sophos, notes, “Although there is still some fine-tuning to be done to the proposals for reformed data legislation in the EU before they can become law, the core principles are unlikely to change.”
He further added, “All in all, we see this as a positive step in the right direction to bringing all member states under a single set of rules appropriate for the modern, digital world.”
The survey also shows that knowledge and awareness of data encryption is low. The ratification will come as the current data protection directive dates back to 1995, with many changes having been made in between owing to the advent of smartphones and cloud-based services.
1,500 professional consumer and office workers were surveyed across the UK, France and Germany.
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(Image Credit: Sébastien Bertrand)
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