Published by Gbaf News
Posted on November 25, 2014
3 min readLast updated: January 22, 2026
For third year running, UK firms less prepared for information risk than European average
According to the latest Information Risk Maturity Index from Iron Mountain and PwC, firms in the UK have fallen behind their European counterparts when it comes to managing and responding to information risk.
Despite a string of high-profile data breaches and upcoming reforms to data protection legislation coming out of the European Parliament, the results from the 2014 Index show UK mid-market firms score 55.9 out of an ideal score of 100, five points below the leading European country Hungary which had a score of 60.2. This is only marginally better than the UK’s 2013 score of 55.4, illustrating the plateau that businesses appear to have reached and the difficulty many now face in becoming fully equipped for risk.
The annual index measures how prepared companies are to address key information trends against a target of 100. For the third year running, UK mid-market firms have fallen short of achieving the European average set by the Netherlands, Hungary, Germany, UK, France and Spain.
Phil Greenwood, Commercial Director at Iron Mountain, said: “UK firms have some way to go if they are to catch up with their European counterparts. For the third year running they have failed to match the average European score. It is critical that companies address this if they are to adopt a responsible-yet-proactive approach to information risk and value, not just to protect the business, but to help it thrive.”
Based on the findings of the Information Risk Maturity Index, Iron Mountain has identified a set of steps and actions to help businesses improve their data security:
A summary of the report, Beyond Good Intentions: The need to move from intention to action to manage information risk, can be found at www.ironmountain.co.uk/risk-management.
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