Even as the number of business data breaches rise, 85 percent of small business owners say a data breach at their firms are unlikely and are not even taking basic safety precautions, according to The Hartford Small Business Data Protection survey.

The survey found that business owners varied in their adoption of eight data protection best practices to help reduce a business's risk of a breach:

Lock and secure sensitive customer, patient or employee data—48 percent
Restrict employee access to sensitive data—79 percent
Shred and securely dispose of customer, patient or employee data—53 percent
Use password protection and data encryption—48 percent
Have a privacy policy—44 percent
Update systems and software on a regular basis—47 percent
Use firewalls to control access and lock-out hackers—48 percent
Ensure that remote access to their company's network is secure—41 percent.

Nearly two-thirds of business owners (61 percent) believe a data breach violates trust and jeopardizes relationships with customers, patients and employees. More than a third (38 percent) have a more negative opinion of companies that have recently experienced a breach, based on the companies' handling of the breach.

About a third of business owners (34 percent) would have difficulty complying with government notification requirements, and nearly half (47 percent) acknowledge it would be impossible for a small business to completely safeguard customer, patient or employee data.

Special Reports /

IQ: Hartford: Small Businesses Doubt Data Breach Risk

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