Small businesses are being reminded of the importance of have adequate data protection measures in place to ensure that customer details are kept safe.

This has come following a £5,000 fine imposed by the Information Commissioner’s Office upon London sole trader, Jala Transport last week, after it lost a hard drive containing the financial details relating to its 250 customers.

While the hard drive was protected by a password, the data was not encrypted, meaning that customer names, dates of birth, addresses, identity documents and payment details were vulnerable to the threat of identity theft.

The ICO have urged small business owners to ensure that they take all precautions to keep customers data safe by using encryption software, which uses a series of mathematical algorithms to protect and hide information.

ICO’s Group Manager for Technology, Simon Rice, said: “The penalty will have a real impact on this business and should act as a warning to all business owners that they must take adequate steps to keep customers’ information secure.”