• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, July 5, 2004

Confidential Business Data Leaks in UK

Findings from a UK survey commissioned by SurfControl, reveal the dangers facing businesses who do not protect their e-mail communications against confidential data loss. The survey found that 39% of workers interviewed have received confidential information via e-mail that was not intended for them. Of this number 26% confirmed that the information was sent to them from an external source.

With responses from over 400 of the country's IT managers and HR officers, the survey shows that e-mail appears to be a common way to circulate confidential information. 91% of users regularly send and receive corporate or customer confidential information in this way.

Of great concern to businesses at large is that 15% of respondents admitted to sending out confidential information by mistake to the wrong person or organization, with 17% of them unable to retrieve the data.

The survey further highlighted the difference between the job functions with 45% of IT professionals having received confidential data that was not intended for them compared to 23% of HR professionals.

Martino Corbelli, Director of Marketing for SurfControl states, "the percentage of people who send and receive confidential information in error is higher than we could have anticipated but underlines the widespread use of e-mail as a communication tool for many business applications."

A white paper is available here.