Indian SMEs not prepared for disasters: Symantec

Symantec Corporation’s 2011 disaster preparedness survey for small and medium enterprises, which measured the attitudes and practices of SMEs and their customers towards disaster preparedness, reveal that though SMEs in India are at risk, they are still not making disaster preparedness a priority until they experience a disaster or data loss.

The findings show that many SMEs do not understand the importance of disaster preparedness. Sixty-eight per cent of the respondents do not have a plan in place, 50 per cent said that it never occurred to them to put together a plan and 17 per cent stated that disaster preparedness is not a priority for them.

Twenty-seven per cent of respondents live in regions susceptible to natural disasters while in the past 12 months, any given typical SME experienced six computer outages. The leading causes cited were cyber attacks, power outages or natural disasters.

“Disasters are unpredictable and can happen due to natural causes, human errors or IT system failures. SMEs that handle sensitive information such as customer records, credit card details or personnel files, cannot afford to risk data loss incidents. Findings from the research show that SMBs in India still haven’t recognised the tremendous impact of disasters. Simple planning can enable SMBs to protect their information in the event of it, which in turn will help them build trust with their customers,” said Vineet Sood, Symantec’s head, channels & alliances.