Remote working and cyber attacks are biggest data protection threats

Remote working and the threat of cyber-attacks are the number one data protection concern for 65% of Irish companies in 2021. This is according to a new survey from the Association of Compliance Officers Ireland (ACOI) which sought to understand the current data protection risks facing companies – 85% of whom have more than 75% of their workforce currently working from home.

The survey of more than 250 organisations – answered by ACOI members with responsibility for compliance in financial organisations throughout the country, revealed that the mobile workforce arrangements, necessitated by the pandemic since last year, have left employers feeling increasingly vulnerable to data protection breaches.

RISK

The ACOI report that in the last 12 months many organisations have had to reassess their data security systems to adapt to new levels of cyber risk to internal assets and data, and urge that any that have yet to do so, need to move with some immediacy to rise to the data protection challenges of an off-site workforce.

When asked if the risk of cyber-attack has become a greater consideration since the redeployment of staff to home-based working, 89% of respondents said it has, ‘to varying degrees’.