In addition, one-third of small businesses in Canada have no staff member designated to ensure document security in the business. A full 27% of Canadian small businesses have never conducted a review of their organization's secure document destruction procedures, according to a survey of 1,011 Canadian businesses conducted by Ipsos Reid for Shred-it.
More than half of Canadian small businesses do not offer secure document destruction facilities within their organization, the survey found.
"The results of the Information Security Tracker demonstrate that small businesses need to take greater precautions when it comes to protecting their information", said Michael Collins, vice president for Canada at Shred-it. "These organizations are often trying to do more with less to compete with larger businesses, and because of this it's crucial that they take the necessary steps to protect themselves from data breaches, identity theft and fraud", he added.
More than a quarter of Canadian small businesses surveyed said that they are unaware of legal obligations for protecting confidential information; 38% of Canadian small businesses said they have no protocol for storing and disposing confidential data.
The survey found that 36% of Canadian small business operators said that there staff have never been trained on information security procedures or protections, and 38% only train staff on an ad-hoc basis.
"The success of small businesses is key to the continued development and growth of the Canadian economy. But to maintain their successes, small businesses need to arm themselves with the tools and procedures to protect their organizations from potentially devastating crimes", Collins said.