Small businesses ignoring ‘C-drive syndrome’

More than half of UK businesses have a pernicious strain of 'C-drive syndrome', making them vulnerable to security and compliance complications.

Storing sensitive data such as financial reports or customer contact details on the C drive of laptops or PCs can lay firms open to theft, warns the survey by Star Technology.

It also hinders the sharing of information between colleagues, potentially limiting company growth.

The problem is particularly acute in smaller companies, who tend to ignore the potential consequences. Less than half of small firms’ IT staff are concerned about security compared to two-thirds in larger businesses. Similarly smaller firms are far less bothered by the compliance implications of having little control over business-critical information.

Dave Haines, IT manager at Business Link Gloucestershire, says this is a familiar headache for IT staff in small businesses. “Our staff are encouraged to save all data on network drives, but an outright ban on using C drives and making it impossible for employees to access them may be the only real solution to the problem,” he says.