Data breaches in the pharmaceutical sector at 60%

The extent of data breaches in the pharmaceutical sector has been revealed with almost one quarter being hacked and 60% admitting to losing important data

The Crown Records Management Survey revealed that 60% of IT decision makers said their company had lost important data, 12% of them had done so between seven and nine times and 8% had lost data between 13 and 15 times.

The survey also revealed that 24% of pharmaceutical companies had suffered a hack and 40% knew someone whose computers had been hacked.

Ann Sellar, business development manager at Crown Records Management, said: “These survey results should be a wake-up call for UK businesses, and especially those in the pharmaceutical sector, because the importance of protecting customer data is higher than ever.

“Businesses need to look at the way they protect their information, understand where the threats are and start putting robust processes in place to protect their customers. If they don’t I can only see the number of data breaches increasing in the next few years.”

The survey also revealed that, of senior IT decision makers in the pharmaceutical sector, only 12% say they have personally lost sensitive data, which is relatively low when compared to the 25% admitted to by Facilities Management.

Ann Sellar said: “Overall the figures are worrying but not surprising – although hacking is big news we estimate 80 per cent of data breaches come from human error. It is encouraging to see the lower numbers of those in the pharmaceutical sector being careless with sensitive data.”