Business insurance holders should act quickly to meet the strict requirements of the Data Protection Act (DPA) and avoid penalties due to came into force in April next year, it has been claimed.
Alan Calder, chief executive of compliance specialist IT Governance, said that the Information Commissioner's Office plans to impose 25 monetary penalty notices every year for breaches of the DPA, with some fines reaching as much as £500,000 each for serious contraventions.
"Any company or organisation, failing to take reasonable measures to comply will be in the firing line. There could even be prison sentences for deliberate, or negligent, customer data leaks by individuals within an organisation," he added,
Mr Calder went on to say that the least business insurance customers should do is carry out a DPA compliance audit to establish the work they need to do to meet the criteria and avoid penalties.
Earlier this week, consultancy Interchange Solutions claimed that business insurance holders should do everything they can to make transparency and trust central to their dealings in 2010.
