UK favours data classification not deletion

Survey finds that while 80 percent of UK firms have employed data classification techniques, only 52 percent were concerned with implementing deletion policies

UK firms are keen on classifying the growing volumes of data they are required to retain for corporate governance purposes, but seem less keen on deleting or protection the information under their care.

These are the findings of a telephone survey of 950 IT decision makers based in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region conducted by Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) in January and February of this year.

It estimates that 80 percent of UK companies have employed data classification techniques to sort and prioritise the data they retain, and a large number take compliance issues very seriously compared to other European companies. But only 52 percent appear concerned with implementing deletion policies and a mere 38 percent were encrypting the data under their protection.

“We seem to be using classification to assess where data is, how important it is to the company and how long we should keep it better than we ever have done. But we don’t seem to be too good at protecting it or deleting it,” said HDS UK managing director Steve Murphy.

Only 39 percent of UK firms reported having formal policies for the storage of corporate data on the growing number of mobile devices used by employees, though it is possible that sensitive data is simply blocked from being copied onto those devices in the first place.

The survey also found that UK companies are less likely to have implemented disaster recovery policies than their European counterparts: 13 percent said they had no formal strategy, the highest of all the EMEA countries, where the average was two percent.

This can be partially explained by the fact that 37 percent of firms have outsourced responsibility for business continuity to service providers, largely for financial reasons.

“UK firms outsource more of their data, but there should still be testing of those recovery policies to make sure they can get the data back if disaster s trikes,” said Murphy.