Security should have been a key priority for technology leaders in 2007, especially given high-profile failures to protect customer data through poor system implementation and slack human process.

Last March, hackers stole the payment card details of more than 45 million TK Maxx customers. Later in the year, misplaced discs at HM Revenue & Customs placed 25 million people at risk of identity theft.

Such dangers and the inevitable effect a data leak can have on an organisation’s public profile ­have surely made IT security a key spending priority? Apparently not, according to Deloitte.

Research from the consultant shows just five per cent of technology, media and telecoms firms increased their security investment by 15 per cent or more last year. Worse still, half of firms allocated less than three per cent of their IT budget to security.

Maybe firms believe personal data is devalued and the risk of playing fast and loose with customer information is overplayed.

Security specialist Symantec recently found there is a global underworld of criminal organisations selling stolen information. UK-based credit card details are available from as little as £1 and full identities ­US bank account, credit card, date of birth and government-issued identification number ­can be bought for just £7.22.

As reader Paul B. recently noted on my blog (see link, below): “Is the information so abundant that criminals don’t need to charge higher prices?”

Which brings me to the issue of playing fast and loose with customer information.
TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson certainly believed the risks of data loss were overplayed when he printed his banking and personal details in a national newspaper.

One direct debit for £500 later and the Top Gear presenter was forced to eat his words ­ but he is not the first to have been stung by data loss.

Identity theft costs the UK economy more than £1.7bn per year, according to the UK’s fraud prevention service Cifas. Such costs should help illustrate why investing in security is critical.

“Let’s be careful out there,” as Sergeant Phil Esterhaus used to say to his team on TV show Hill Street Blues.

What do you think? Read the blog at:
http://knowledge.computing.co.uk