A new report has found that a majority of UK businesses are going to freeze or reduce the amount they spend on IT security and data protection over the coming year.
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) carried out an international survey and found that while 52 per cent of businesses worldwide would be increasing the amount spent on data security, only 31 per cent would be taking similar measures in the UK.
PwC’s William Beer, pointed out that while UK firms were holding back investment from increasing the level of security surrounding their IT systems, there was a wider acceptance of the fact that an improvement in security was necessary, largely thanks to the fact that data loss scandals and significant fines were being publicised on a regular basis.
Mr Beer said that the market as a whole was less than optimistic and that businesses in the UK were simply working with the current economic climate.
Mr Beer explained that the squeeze being placed on budgets across the country, was causing businesses to look at how their current data protection policies work in relation to the wider strategies within their organisations. This includes the employees, systems and handling regulations which each firm has in place to protect the integrity of private information.
Businesses are largely in agreement that the problem of data security is a serious one and this is reflected in the fact that many are considering whether or not the management of security should bypass other executives and take any issues straight to the governing board. In this way, a response to a disaster can be streamlined by those who have the authority to do so, according to Mr Beer.
The report found that businesses in the UK were far less likely to offer support for social networking tools internally, with only 33 per cent giving employees access during working hours, compared to a 60 per cent international average.
The PwC report took in answers from over 13,000 executives scattered across businesses worldwide.
