Tankard warned of fines of up to £500,000 being levied by the Information Commissioners Office if businesses were found to be negligent with the likelihood of this level of fine rising in the future following the trend of the US to name, shame and impose substantial fines.

“ Loss of data can damage your brand, result in loss of clients and in some cases bring your business down” says Tankard.  “ Threats can come from within your organization, outside sources which by-pass security and from social networking sites to name a few. Most of us are simply not taking the issue seriously enough” he adds. 

Tankard urged the Chamber’s members to ensure their systems were adequately encrypted with use of ‘strong’ passwords.  Using your pets name as a password was simply not good enough!

Other elements to pay attention to: never store passwords on a laptop, always use secure back ups, ensure up-to-date security technology is employed and never think you can pass your duty of care on to a third party, you cannot.

Members ended the evening with a wine tasting provided by Bibendum.

Says Ian Hudson of the Harlow Chamber, “Data security was certainly something our members needed to be alerted to.  We are fortunate to have Digital Pathways among our membership to offer sound advice and guidance.”