A Third of Businesses Fail to Protect Sensitive Data Transfers

Ipswitch Inc.’s 2009 File Transfer Security Survey highlights weaknesses in the UK’s data infrastructure

Ipswitch, Inc.’s File Transfer division, the leading global developer of comprehensive secure and managed file transfer solutions, and COMPUTERLINKS, a leading distributor of IT security and Internet technology solutions, today announced the results of their 2009 File Transfer Security Survey. The results of the study indicate huge disparities in attitudes towards data security and secure transfer: whilst 82% of organisations reported engagement in exchanges of sensitive data, only 64% encrypted their data at rest or in transfer.

In engineering and heavy industry sectors, just 54% of respondents report encrypting sensitive data as part of their secure data transfer strategy, as opposed to 69% of respondents in health, education and government. The IT sector is doing better, with 70% of respondents encrypting data, along with professional services (74%) and financial services (77.5%), where explicit and demanding regulations are in place from the FSA and Basel Committee, among others. Meanwhile, 50% of respondents in the wider economy do not actually have an encryption strategy in place.

The findings, based on a sample of more than 300 UK respondents, are available online at http://www.computerlinks.co.uk/FMS/0173630.pdf