Businesses at risk with two thirds of data backed up on unsecure storage devices

Despite 99% of respondents strongly agreeing that data security is a necessary practice, 66% of people are storing data on unencrypted storage devices – causing a vast majority of data, and therefore businesses, to become unintentionally vulnerable.

London, UK – 31st March 2021. A recent survey conducted by iStorage Ltd, the award-winning and trusted global leader in PIN-authenticated, hardware-encrypted data storage and cloud encryption devices, found that 99% of people consider backing up data as a necessary practice, however our survey found that only 5% are following National Cyber Security Centre’s backup advice.

The National Cyber Security Centre’s advice is to ensure that all data gets backed up multiple times per day to the ‘3-2-1 Backup Rule’. This means data should be backed up to both an encrypted online backup solution and two different encrypted offline solutions.

The survey, completed by 600 employees, IT experts and tech consumers found that only 17% back up their data multiple times per day, and just 33% of those surveyed only back up their data to an unencrypted device. 9 in 10 people state that more education is needed by their employer to ensure they fully understand how to remain GDPR compliant when storing and backing up data.

“With over 50% of individuals stating that they have experienced business downtime as a result of losing data, more needs to be done to educate businesses and individuals about their responsibilities in managing business and customer data,” states iStorage CEO, John Michael. “Customers have a right to have their personal data kept secure at all times.”

Michael says “Now that a huge percentage of the workforce is working remotely, without secure server access and likely using a form of cloud storage to share files between them, security vulnerabilities increase putting businesses at risk. Encrypting cloud storage to share data with colleagues with the ability to securely decrypt the files is the best possible way of bridging these vulnerability gaps exaggerated by the new ‘hybrid’ workforce.”

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iStorage is the trusted global leader of award-winning PIN authenticated, hardware encrypted data storage and cloud encryption devices. Head quartered in London, UK, iStorage deliver the most innovative products to securely store and protect data to military specified encryption levels, safeguarding valuable business information whilst ensuring compliance to regulations and directives.

iStorage remains the only hardware storage manufacturer to receive FIPS 140-2 Level 3, NCSC CPA, NLNCSA BSPA and NATO Restricted certification on PIN authenticated, hardware encrypted hard drives and solid-state drives.

The iStorage Data Storage & Backup survey was conducted via social media channels and received 600 responses.

This release was published on openPR.