Firms admit data loss threat

Three-quarters of companies would expect to lose business if they misplaced or leaked customers' personal data, according to research conducted by Symantec.

The survey found that 76% would expect to lose customers, with around half of those expecting this to happen immediately.

"These statistics are very concerning for businesses, particularly in the current unstable market conditions," said John Brigden, senior vice president, EMEA, at Symantec.

"Not only do they risk losing large numbers of customers following an incident of data loss, but almost 60% of companies said it would make it a lot harder to attract new customers once the reputation had been tarnished."

Nearly four out of five people did not trust companies to look after their personal data and 93% said they would not provide information to businesses that had had previous problems of losing data.