Furthermore, 22 per cent replied this had happened four to six times, and four per cent that it had occurred 10 to 12 times. 26 per cent also reported their company had suffered a hack. Ann Sellar, business development manager at Crown Records Management, said: ‘These survey results should be a wake-up call … because the importance of protecting customer data is higher than ever. Not only because of potential fines for data breaches (which will soon increase when the EU General Data Protection Regulation is ratified) but also because of growing public awareness.’

Human error and training

‘Overall the figures are worrying but not surprising – although hacking is big news we estimate 80 per cent of data breaches come from human error. … All businesses need to ensure they are doing everything they can to reduce this risk through staff training, robust procedures and working with approved, specialist suppliers to give them the best chance of protecting their data’ she added.