Worrying development: privacy and data security are becoming less of a priority

Vulnerability to cybercrime has increased during the corona period. A worrying development that has received far too little attention. Recent research even shows that only twelve percent of HR professionals secure data. Striking because HR professionals are usually responsible for, among other things, the personal data of employees...

Research among HR professionals

Few HR professionals in the Netherlands consider digital security a priority within their organization. The urgency around the theme is even decreasing. Only twelve percent indicate that data security is a priority. For next year, this is expected to drop to nine percent. This is evident from research by Berenschot, Performa and AFAS Software among more than two thousand HR professionals.

The research shows that HR managers in Dutch businesses are quite concerned about privacy and data security (47%). Only the psychological consequences of working from home (60%) and the course of economic circumstances (51%) are currently causing greater concerns. It is remarkable that there is a mismatch between these concerns and the actual priority that is assigned. Privacy and data security are in eleventh place on the priority list of HR professionals. It is expected that this will even increase to twelfth place in 2022.

Moving with the times

AFAS board member Britt Breure regrets that the urgency for this theme is decreasing among her colleagues. Despite the challenges she also experiences on this theme, she believes that companies must move with the times. “We must realize that there is a constant risk that external parties can get hold of data. Security and privacy are therefore top priorities at AFAS. In this way, we try to protect our employees as best we can and motivate them as much as possible to work on this theme. That goes quite far. We have made it impossible to log in to our work environment without multifactor authentication. In addition, we also regularly talk to our customers about how they do or do not protect themselves and we constantly give them tips.”

Danger on a digital highway

“We are constantly and increasingly reading about the danger that comes to companies from outside, via the digital highway. Recently, the company VDL was in the grip of a cyber hostage situation and now it is unfortunately Mediamarkt’s turn,” says Hans van der Spek, manager of the HCM knowledge centre at Berenschot. “Unfortunately, we see that despite an increase in concerns and this type of current events, it does not seem to have any effect on the priority list of HR professionals.”

“When a large part of the Netherlands suddenly started working from home, we had thought and perhaps hoped that people would automatically focus on these important topics, but it almost seems like something they don’t want to get their fingers burned,” says Van der Spek. “How to continue working safely remotely is something to think about. Given the fact that it is not only a matter of the right technology, but also of responsible behavior, it is certainly a relevant theme for HR professionals. In addition, personnel information is of course privacy-sensitive, so I would have expected an increase in the priority of the theme of privacy and data security.”

Towards a digital reality

The logical step is of course to take action on this. And that does not have to be complicated or expensive. With our iStorage products you can store your data 100% secured, without anyone else being able to access it. You can already have a secured USB solution at home for €57,- euro. And do you want to work with your entire company in a secured environment? Then quickly view our CloudAshur products .