eWEEK Readers Rarely Experience Leaks

Most eWEEK readers rarely experience breaches of data security, of the kind that can now attract penalties from the Information Commissioner. However, a small number say breaches are out of control – and when they do happen, you are slightly more likely to cover them up than report them.

Last month the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) issued fines up to £100,000 for companies which lost data and breached the Data Protection Act – and the public thinks the penalties should be bigger. We asked how often you experience data breaches in your organisation and whether these are reported or hushed up.

Let’s keep it quiet, shall we?

One in ten people who voted said data breaches were “completely out of control” at their firm, but more than 60 percent of respondents are more relaxed.

Around 46 percent think breaches are rare in their organisation, while 17 percent believe they are “completely unknown” – which could of course just mean they don’t know about the breaches.

About 20 percent of voters think that breaches are frequent at their organisation – a disturbingly high figure, but in line with the general level of gossip on the subject.

For any level of security breach, firms seemed to be more likely to cover up the incidents than report them – an interesting result, given calls for mandatory reporting. Fifty-five percent of those with”rare” breaches would hush them up, while 70 percent of those with frequent breaches would keep quiet.

Let’s just think about Christmas

All that makes such depressing reading, there is only one thing to do: bring on the festive season! In our next poll, we want to know what you want for Christmas.

We aren’t promising to actually send the present to you, and we are certainly not going to risk a fine from the ICO by sharing your present preferences with Santa.

In any case, given the results of the last survey, it’s arguable that not many of you are actually good enough to deserve any presents at all.

We’re not asking for specific brands or models, but we’re interested in how you rate the different gadgets you might get. Would you like a smartphone or a camera? A tablet or an e-reader? Or are you really just pining for a few days off without any technology at all?

As always, if we’ve not given you enough options, the “Other” field is there for you to express your innermost needs.

Secretly we’re hoping you’ll give us ideas what to get this year for our mothers….