SMEs 'should warn resellers of data protection importance'

The importance of data protection is something that small and medium-sized businesses should make resellers aware of.

This is according to recent comments from Alex Teh, the commercial director of Vigil Software.

Mr Teh said: "SMEs work with small/medium-size resellers – resellers that actually cater to SMEs as part of their job – essentially becoming their IT department and making all IT recommendations inside that particular company. So, they actually outsource that function and support to these small/medium enterprise resellers.

"In a way, the SME needs to make sure that those resellers are aware that data protections important to them and that they need to comply with the Data Protection Act."

The comments follow research from the Ponemon Institute and Check Point Software Technologies, which revealed that 77 per cent of organizations surveyed have experienced data loss in the last year.

Meanwhile, a study from Symantec and the institute revealed that the cost of a data breach has now risen for the third consecutive year.