Half of businesses in the UK are insured against data loss, which means the other half still considers data as a cost, and not an asset. That's according to a new report by Accenture, which argues that businesses don’t take ‘complete steps’ to protect assets of value. A fourth of business leaders have witnessed an attempt on their data in the last year, either to steal it, or to destroy it, it was said. When it comes to larger firms, the percentage jumps up to a third. Accenture claims that insuring against data loss can be done at ‘a fraction of the cost’ that’s usually associated with gathering and analysing data. The report says that average medium-sized businesses spend more than a million dollars a year on data harvesting and analytics, while insurance can be acquired for $85,000 a year. So, if businesses know what they have and how difficult it is to acquire it, why don’t they protect it? Aside the fact that some businesses consider data a cost, it was also argued that 30 per cent of data gathered is considered inaccurate. Almost three quarters (70 per cent) of people that use data don’t have access to everything they need, either. Accenture’s managing director George Marcotte says businesses are clinging to traditional practices, and that’s an issue. “These businesses still revolve around the five classic asset classes: monetary, physical, relational, organisational and human, which I imagine they will have insurance to protect. And yet they don’t put data into that category,” he says. “It’s only the new platform companies that see data as a sixth asset class. Not only will they take steps to insure it, but they also take bigger steps to invest in it. As data becomes more vital to business success, not taking all steps to protect it is like forgetting to insure the crown jewels.” Image source: Shutterstock/Carlos Amarillo
Just 50% of UK firms are insured against data loss, according to a report from Accenture. This is despite medium-sized corporations typically spending over $1m annually on data harvesting and analytics, while insurance costs a fraction of that, at $85,000 a year. Furthermore, a quarter of business leaders, and a third of large companies, suffered an attempt to either steal or destroy their data last year. The threat posed by hackers has been well documented in the past few years, but it was only this year that we began seeing evidence of how serious these attacks can be.