A survey carried out by Echoworx, makers of OneWorld, the smart platform for message encryption, has found that a quarter of UK businesses do not have an email security solution in place, despite recent high profile email related data breaches like Sony and WHSmith.
The survey findings looked into employee usage of email security technologies for sharing sensitive corporate data.
Beyond the quarter admitting they had no email security solution in place, 57 per cent of respondents admitted that they found their current email security solutions cumbersome and difficult to use.
This increased even further among more mature employees within the workplace, with 63 per cent aged 45 and over finding their current email security solutions more challenging to navigate.
"It's certainly worrying that over a quarter of UK businesses are leaving their corporate emails totally unprotected," said Greg Aligiannis, Senior Director of Securityat Echoworx.
"It highlights a clear lack of awareness of email security and the potential implications that this could have on a business. For those companies that do have a secure email solution already in place, it's vital that it's transparent to the user. If security solutions are too complicated, employees will almost certainly find a less secure workaround.
"Security of sensitive information must be considered to be a priority for everyone regardless of whether you work in the public or private sector.
"Encryption applied to email and other data lets organisations stay one step ahead if and when a security lapse occurs. It automatically applies policy to stop data leaks before they start which is especially important now that cybercriminals are developing increasingly sophisticated tactics to infiltrate corporate networks."
The research, which polled 1,000 financial services professionals across the UK, was carried out by OnePoll on behalf of Echoworx.