Data Breach Mistakes Feared More than Hackers by Compliance Professionals

Business Investment in Data Privacy Oversight Rising

Survey Conducted by the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics and the Health Care Compliance Association

MINNEAPOLIS, April 4, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Seventy percent of compliance professionals feel that their organizations are well or very well prepared to fend off hacker attacks, however, their confidence wanes significantly when assessing other data breach threats, according to a survey conducted by the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics (SCCE) and the Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA). Fully 61% believed that an accidental breach by an employee was very or somewhat likely, and 41% felt the same way about accidental breaches by third-party vendors.  

"The fear over unintentional breaches suggest that employees and vendors still don't fully understand the need to safeguard data and despite training, people will still make mistakes," said Roy Snell, SCCE and HCCA Chief Executive Officer. "Further training and hard controls that make it more difficult to share data are necessary," added Snell.

The efforts to raise employee sensitivities and improve control are likely behind the increasing time invested by business in privacy compliance. The survey found that 82% of those responding had invested more time on the issue of data privacy compliance in the previous year. This investment is expected to continue with 77% of respondents indicating that they expect time spent on data protection and privacy to further increase during the next year.

"This is clearly a long-term challenge for compliance professionals and business," added Snell. "Business will continue to invest time and resources in ensuring that what's meant to stay private truly does state private."

Survey Methodology

More than 500 responses were received for this survey, conducted of compliance and ethics professionals in the database of the Health Care Compliance Association and the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics.

For the complete survey click here: HCCA: http://www.hcca-info.org/privacy11 or

SCCE: http://www.corporatecompliance.org/Privacy  

About the HCCA

The Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA), established in 1996 and headquartered in Minneapolis, MN, is a non-profit professional membership organization made up of compliance and ethics professionals working in the health care industry. HCCA is dedicated to improving the quality of compliance. Visit HCCA's Web site at www.hcca-info.org. Tel: 888/580-8373.    

About the SCCE

The Society of Corporate Compliance & Ethics (SCCE) is headquartered in Minneapolis, MN. Its mission: SCCE exists to champion ethical practice and compliance standards in all organizations and to provide the necessary resources for compliance professionals and others who share these principles. Visit the SCCE Web site at http://www.corporatecompliance.org, Tel: 888-277-4977. Society of Corporate Compliance & Ethics is located at 6500 Barrie Road, Suite 250, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55435. E-mail: [email protected]

SOURCE Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics; Health Care Compliance Association