UK companies: Leaking like a sieve?

Most UK companies are losing data every month a survey has found.

The majority of UK businesses, 79 per cent, are losing data at least once per month, according to the survey of 250 senior IT staff at businesses larger than 1,000 staff.

More than a quarter, 28 per cent, suffered data loss on a weekly or more frequent basis the report by IT management company CA found.

Full Disclosure campaign

silicon.com is aiming to make businesses and government take data security more seriously. Read more here.

Network downtime occurs in 24 per cent of companies, application crashes in 30 per cent and slowing of applications in 27 per cent, the study also discovered.

IT departments were suffering from underinvestment, with 68 per cent of IT managers saying their budgets were insufficient and 45 per cent saying IT costs were overlooked in new business ventures.

Senior IT staff said companies should take greater advantage of new technology and utilise online applications to tackle the problems.

Last week parliament outlawed the reckless loss of personal data, backing changes to the law to make it a civil offence punishable with a "substantial" fine.