Almost two-thirds of employees in Irish businesses are not aware of the cybersecurity risks associated with cloud services, according to research commissioned by Data Solutions.

The research was carried out by the Marketing Development Programme at the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School among 296 working professionals across five locations in Ireland and among 76 IT decision-makers within Irish businesses.

It found 53 per cent of employees shared work documents and corporate data through cloud services even though 62 per cent said they were not aware of the cybersecurity risks associated with cloud services.

The research also highlighted a lack of awareness among employees about data-sharing policies regarding the cloud: while 61 per cent of firms had such a policy, fewer than a third of employees were aware of it.

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Data Solutions director of technology and strategy Francis O’Haire said the findings should make Irish businesses sit up and take notice.

“The majority of non-IT staff aren’t aware of cybersecurity risks associated with social media and cloud services and because of this, they unknowingly put the business at risk,” he said.

Mr O’Haire said recent high-profile cybersecurity attacks showed there was a real fear of cyber warfare.

“Companies are faced with the pressure of being ready for all attacks; hackers just need to find one weak link to make a huge dent in a company’s finances, reputation or data,” he said.