AVG Technologies NV : Over 1-in-3 small businesses spend more time tidying their desks than backing up their data

AMSTERDAM and SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 13, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --Most small businesses are still failing to appreciate the true value of their data after a new study released today by Internet and mobile security company AVG Technologies N.V. (NYSE: AVG) revealed that 37 percent of small business owners and managers spend more time tidying their desks or ordering new business cards (21 percent) than they do on data backup.

The researchi, which surveyed more than 500 small business owners and managers in North America, showed that while many (75 percent) do rely on automated backup systems, a significant number, around 1-in-4 (24 percent) do not insist that employees back up at least once a week. This is in spite of the fact that 30 percent believe more than half of their data is sensitive.

Given the amount of sensitive data small businesses claim to have, the loss of employee mobile devices should cause concern. In fact, approximately half of small businesses (47 percent) say they have experienced losing a mobile device. Interestingly, the survey showed small business owners do not think the mobile devices in their workforce have a lot of sensitive data on them. There was much more concern about trusting the security of their data to the cloud. When asked about cloud-based backup, 64 percent of SMB owners said security was their top concern.

"Our research shows that while the great majority of small businesses in North America are relatively savvy about the importance of backup, there is still plenty of market education to do, especially when it comes to mobile and cloud platforms," said Mike Foreman, AVG's General Manager, SMB. "In today's mobile and data-driven world it's particularly shocking to hear how business owners still spend more time on physical-world activities like tidying their desks and ordering new business cards than digital ones, which suggests that, despite evidence cybercriminals see value in small business data, business owners themselves are still failing to appreciate the true value of the data held within their systems."

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About AVG Technologies (NYSE: AVG)

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