World-leading biometrics company, Fingerprint Cards AB (Fingerprints™), has announced that its solution will be part of the MENA region’s latest step in its journey toward mass adoption of contactless biometric payment cards as it supports two more commercial launches in Morocco.

This announcement follows previous commercial launches in Morocco with two of the country’s largest banks (BMCI – part of BNP Paribas and Crédit Agricole Du Maroc).  All those launches in Morocco are deployed with Thales’ innovative and highly secure biometric payment cards encompassing Fingerprint technology.

As with previous commercial launches, Fingerprints’ proven 1300-series T-Shape module and software platform are driving these latest deployments. Alongside leveraging extensive R&D and experience from eight commercial launches and 24 bank pilots to date, the T-Shape solution is compliant with Mastercard’s new Fingerprint Sensor Evaluation Process. This provides consumers extra security to the ‘tap’ of tap-to-pay, without sacrificing convenience.

Michel Roig, President of Payment and Access at Fingerprints comments: “We are extremely pleased to announce that our solution will fuel two further biometric payment card launches with leading Moroccan banks. Much like the rest of the Middle East, Morocco is a region to watch as it fast becomes an exciting hub for payments innovation, and the continued exciting momentum around biometric payment card deployments reflects this.”

According to the latest data from the Moroccan Monetary Center (CMI), there are 12.1 million contactless cards in circulation. The last 12 months have also seen a significant rise in the technology’s use, with the ratio of card payments being contactless almost doubling from 25% in the first quarter of 2021 to 48.8% in 2022.

“Having quickly embraced contactless card technology after it was first deployed to the region in 2018, Moroccan consumers have come to love the experience, and there is a significant opportunity to offer the next logical step. By integrating Fingerprints’ proven biometric technology, we will further strengthen contactless payment security and convenience for even more consumers in Morocco,” adds Michel.

Visit Fingerprints’ payment solutions to learn more about the technology that is unlocking the next generation of contactless.

By Tim Morris, MD of Cymphony

Despite financial services adapting quickly to the pandemic and resulting lockdowns, it seems the sector is suffering its own form of ’long COVID’ that could lead to burnout if business do not act now. A recent survey suggests that large numbers of financial services professionals are planning to leave the industry due to high pressure¹. Tim Morris, the MD of Cymphony, a communications provider specialising in enquiry handling with a personal touch, believes technology can play a significant role in alleviating the pressure on staff and preventing exhaustion.

Logging off after work

A recent HSE study found that over seventeen million of the UK’s working days were lost because of workplace stress. So, one way your business can combat this is by helping your employees switch off after work. However, this is often easier said than done, particularly at the moment with economic headwinds and rising rates causing financial businesses to be busier and therefore asking staff to work longer hours than they should.

Do a quick internet search for “how to switch off after work” and 99 per cent of the articles you come across will recommend having a detox from technology. However, leaving the phone lines and email inbox unmanned can potentially cost you thousands of pounds’ worth of business. So, what is the answer? To allow you and your workforce a much-needed detox, I suggest outsourcing your customer service to someone qualified as an inbound communication specialist to answer calls and messages out of hours. These services are available 24/7 and will massively boost your customer service ratings because they make your business more accessible to your customers.

Help your fee earners to focus on their work 

Organisational skills and excellent administration are the hallmarks of any successful business. However, if you want to get the best out of your team and reduce the chances of burning them out, I strongly suggest decreasing your fee earners admin to allow them to focus solely on bringing in money.

One use of technology to reduce distractions is to eliminate cold callers. After such a long and welcome lull of cold callers during the pandemic, these uninvited interruptions often feel more annoying than they should. You could buy a call blocker to plug into your office landline to help brokers avoid nuisance calls. These usually work in the same way as the call blockers built into phones, in that they have a ‘blacklist’ of numbers or number types and prevent any incoming calls from them. If your business uses smartphones, you will have the option to block specific callers. Android and iPhone handsets let you add numbers to a blocked list, reject unknown callers altogether or set a ‘do not disturb’ mode that only allows calls from certain numbers. There is of course, always the danger that important calls are missed this way. Outsourcing your inbound communications is the best solution to ensure you avoid cold callers altogether and still capture valuable customer enquiries. This way, your fee earner’s calls will be handled by a customer service professional on their behalf, allowing them to get on with other activities.

Reducing email admin is also a great way to help employees be more productive throughout the day. On average, 28% of work time is spent on emailing²¹. To remove this distraction, I suggest using email autoresponders. This allows your staff to schedule time into their day where they can address customer service issues instead of jumping in and out of them. A customer wants to know that their email has been received and that help is on the way. When customers’ concerns, problems or complaints go ignored, additional frustrations can emerge, affecting your long-term relationship with them. By using email autoresponders, you instantly let a customer know their email has been received and that they should expect action to be taken soon. Most importantly, ensure you respond in the time frame you have committed to and meet the expectations you have set for your customer.

Smaller independents will benefit from offering a digital journey 

Smaller independent financial businesses must adopt the use of digital tools into their process to compete with bigger brands. However, not having the financial resources to bring in and utilise tech as part of the customer journey is often a big problem.

Unfortunately, businesses that rely on paper, manual tasks and legacy tech cannot compete in an ever-evolving digital landscape. The first thing any financial provider should do is ensure they have a great website to convey their brand and help their company to stand out. Not only will this help their business look the part, but it will also generate new enquiries. When designing a new website, it is important to ensure the site has the capability to convert visits into enquiries by placing calls to action throughout to encourage visitors to email or pick up the phone.

The next step is to provide a great digital journey to ensure it offers multiple channels for interacting with customers. This is because home buyers now want to communicate with brokers through their ‘channel of choice’ – for example, web chat, form fills, social media posts, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, SMS, email and, of course, the phone. When given their ‘channel of choice’ prospects are more likely to convert into customers. So, linking all these touchpoints to create an omnichannel customer experience can improve a business’s interaction rates and increase sales.

As customers interact with a financial business across multiple channels, they must provide an omnichannel customer support strategy to run alongside it. It should ensure their customers can communicate directly with an agent on the channel or platform they choose. Inbound communications tools such as live web chat, for example, are popular contact channels for companies and customers to use. Web chat enables businesses to keep consumers on their site, allowing them to ask questions, gain insights and even make purchases.

Now more than ever, businesses must embrace technology, understanding that it can play a significant role in helping staff to focus on their work and ease the stresses they face. In turn, this will lead to better business performance and a happier and more productive workforce.

Organisations which suffer security breaches in which customer information is put at risk are far more likely to retain consumer trust if they are swift in communicating the incident and are proactive in setting out a solution, according to new research from Durham University Business School.

The study, co-authored by Dr Spyros Angelopoulos, alongside Robert Davison from City University of Hong Kong as well as Noury Janse, Carol Ou, and Xiaowei Zhang from Tilburg University, sought to better understand the actions that organisations typically take in the event of security breaches, and the subsequent reactions of consumers.

By doing so, the researchers hoped to guide organisations in choosing response strategies that could enable them to maintain consumers’ trust as well as their standing in the market.

To capture authentic consumer appraisals on how security breach incidents have been handled previously, the researchers conducted experiments and developed a conceptual model reflecting the most common forms of security breach within e-commerce, along with the typical response strategies of affected organisations.

Their investigation revealed that the key factors for retaining consumer trust following a security breach are; the perceived risk, the severity of the breach and the response efficacy of the affected organisation.

However, the researchers found that consumers’ reactions varied depending on the type of data that was placed at risk. For example, financial risks and privacy risks were found to be the most influential factors in determining consumers’ intentions to return their custom to an affected organisation following a breach.

The chosen response strategy of the affected organisations, proved to be the most vital element in retaining consumer trust. Whilst it could be presumed that announcing a security breach would alarm consumers, the researchers found that by adopting a more proactive response organisations can decrease consumers’ risk perception and positively boost their public appraisal.

Far from hiding or down playing such incidents, the research shows that transparency and proactivity are powerful tools for retaining confidence. Other factors which were revealed to build consumers’ reassurance included historical evidence of other similarly well-handled incidents.

Dr Angelopoulos says:

“Data security and privacy are becoming paramount as organisations are called to steward increasingly large amounts of sensitive information about their customers. Concurrently, the difficulties in developing, implementing, and executing effective information security measures in conjunction with the inevitable and unforeseen security vulnerabilities, make the prevention of security breach incidents practically impossible. What organisation can plan for, however, is their response strategy when such incidents occur.

The findings of our study demonstrate that a more responsive strategy, both in terms of announcing the occurrence of the incident as well as in sharing the response strategy for remedying the situation, can enhance the evaluation of an organisation by consumers following a security breach incident. The way in which organisations choose to conduct themselves in the aftermath can help to mitigate the ramifications for failing to adequately steward sensitive customer data in the first place.”

As data plays an increasingly vital part in how organisations operate and make decisions, the study recommends that not only more robust security measures should be put in place, but that such measures should also be monitored, and updated regularly. Additionally, the study recommends that such measures should be communicated to consumers proactively to better manage their perceptions of risk.

Ultimately, when security breach incidents occur, organisations can recover better if they are up-front about what information has been put at risk, and how they will be rectifying the situation. Burying the details and trying to maintain a perfect façade is likely to do more harm than good in the long run.

The study “Security breaches and organisation response strategy: Exploring consumers’ threat and coping appraisals” has been published in the International Journal of Information Management.

World-leading biometrics company, Fingerprint Cards AB (Fingerprints™) has entered a partnership with global card manufacturer, Tag Systems (and part of AUSTRIACARD Group). Banks, fintechs and Tag Systems’ broader customer portfolio will be able to offer cardholders the enhanced convenience and security of biometric-enabled payment cards.

The partners will launch an advanced biometric payment card solution based on Fingerprints’ biometric technology, which is already live in a combined 30+ pilots and commercial launches globally. Fingerprints’ second generation pre-certified T-Shape® (T2) sensor module, and software platform, will combine with Tag Systems’ extensive payment card solutions and services, based on ST Microelectronics STPay-Topaz-Bio.

“Tag Systems is a fast mover in the ecosystem and a company known for offering the latest high-end payments services. Together we are addressing the security concerns of many consumers while maintaining and even enhancing the contactless convenience that they know and love. In Tag Systems we have a partner that both shares our belief in the value of biometric cards and can bring added value through their biometric card as a service offering”, says Michel Roig, President of Payment & Access at Fingerprints.

Olga Baró, Commercial and Marketing Director of Tag Systems, says: “With this partnership we aim to make biometric cards the top-of-wallet choice for consumers, leveraging Fingerprints’ established and proven solution for biometric cards. Cardholders will approve the transaction by fingerprint authentication which will result in safe, easy and convenient payments for everyday purchases.”

For more information about Fingerprints’ payment solutions, click here.

SEATTLE – October 25, 2022 – ExtraHop, the leader in cloud-native network intelligence, today announced a new integration between Reveal(x), its network detection and response (NDR) platform, and Splunk SOAR. Using the Reveal(x) integration, Splunk SOAR users now have expanded visibility with packet-level insights from IoT to the cloud including unmanaged devices, legacy systems, and all network assets. Users can correlate logs with network intelligence to gain a greater understanding of threats and more confidence in automation of tier 1 and tier 2 incident response.

Register Now: Extract Value From Your SOAR Faster with NDR

Analysts and IT security managers receive thousands of alerts every day, many of which are ignored due to bandwidth. In fact, according to a research study by ESG, 27% of cybersecurity teams surveyed said they spend most of their time addressing cybersecurity emergencies, not top tier priorities, leaving them little time to work on strategy or process improvement. Even more alarming, 23% said not being able to keep up with the workload contributed to security events in the past two years. Most security teams simply don’t have enough people staffed to stay on top of their workload and be effective.

SOAR platforms excel at streamlining data-gathering from multiple security tools into a single interface, but logs alone are not always reliable and can be inaccurate, disabled, or destroyed by adversaries.

ExtraHop for Splunk SOAR enables security teams to enrich any SOAR playbook with high-fidelity data about detections, devices, network artifacts, or even full packet capture. In addition, Reveal(x) covers more network-detectable MITRE ATT&CK techniques than any other NDR product, covering nearly 90% —including privilege escalation, lateral movement, exfiltration, and command & control.

“The network is a source of ground truth, difficult for an attacker to evade, and nearly impossible to turn off. As such, network traffic analysis offers an effective means to detect suspicious behaviors and potential threats with high signal and low noise,” said Jesse Rothstein, co-founder and CTO, ExtraHop. “Our new integration with Splunk SOAR combines our rich, contextualized data with an advanced platform to enable defenders to prioritize alerts, accelerate investigation, and run trusted playbooks to ultimately stop threats faster.”

With strong expertise in attack detection, unusual behavior, and risk analysis, ExtraHop provides reliable insights and full context analytics, powered by its cloud-based machine learning. Security analysts can respond to alerts that matter, and have everything they need to know about an incident automatically gathered before they start investigating.

“This integration between Splunk and ExtraHop helps overburdened SOC analysts streamline their workflow so they can leverage out-of-the-box playbooks to handle low level alerts and focus on orchestrating the response and forensics needed for the alerts that matter,” said Chris Kissel, research vice president, security and trust, IDC. “A key benefit of integrating with ExtraHop is visibility into encrypted traffic. Encryption is vital for security and privacy, but it can be a double-edged sword when attackers use it to hide their actions. ExtraHop decrypts traffic and provides near real-time insights that are vital for SOC analysts to make faster decisions.”

To learn more about how to detect unknown threats and accelerate response times with integrated Reveal(x) and Splunk, visit extrahop.com/splunk. The on-prem and cloud versions of Splunk SOAR will be available soon on Splunkbase.

About ExtraHop
Cyberattackers have the advantage. ExtraHop is on a mission to help you take it back with security that can’t be undermined, outsmarted, or compromised. Our dynamic cyber defense platform, Reveal(x) 360, helps organizations detect and respond to advanced threats—before they compromise your business. We apply cloud-scale AI to petabytes of traffic per day, performing line-rate decryption and behavioral analysis across all infrastructure, workloads, and data-in-flight. With complete visibility from ExtraHop, enterprises can detect malicious behavior, hunt advanced threats, and forensically investigate any incident with confidence. ExtraHop has been recognized as a market leader in network detection and response by IDC, Gartner, Forbes, SC Media, and numerous others. Learn more at https://www.extrahop.com.

London 24th October 2022, Private Markets Alpha (PM Alpha), the digital marketplace for asset managers, wealth managers, advisors and distributors to access and distribute private markets investments, has announced today that it has appointed Rebecca Bonini as Operational Due Diligence & Product Specialist to strengthen its Operational Due Diligence team.

Rebecca will work closely with PM Alpha Founder & CIO Alexis Weber and PM Alpha Co-Founder, CPO and Head of Operations Chloe Mercer (who will lead the team) to ensure due diligence meets the highest standards during the firm’s manager selection and investment analysis processes.

Rebecca began her career in the investment industry as a Marketing and Communications Intern at the CFA Institute. In 2016, she joined Holland Mountain, a specialist consulting firm for the Private Capital Industry as an Analyst. After completing this position, Rebecca joined KPMG London as an Audit Associate within the Financial Services and Banking Department. During Rebecca’s time at KPMG, she worked on an extensive investment banking external audit engagement gaining significant exposure to credit, fixed income and emerging markets asset classes.

Rebecca is joining PM Alpha from a Senior Analyst role at Akasia Europe, where she performed operational due diligence across European and US-based hedge funds, private debt and private equity funds. In addition, she is a qualified Chartered Accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).

PM Alpha Co-Founder, CPO and Head of Operations Chloe Mercer commented,

“Rebecca is a highly skilled operational due diligence specialist. We’re looking forward to welcoming her to the PM Alpha team, and I’m confident that under the guidance of myself and my colleague Alexis Weber, she will flourish in her new role while adding significant value to our business.”

PM Alpha Operational Due Diligence & Product Specialist Rebecca Bonini commented,

“PM Alpha is an exciting new company offering cutting-edge technology for those in the private markets sector. I’m looking forward to working with the operational due diligence team, particularly Chloe and Alexis, as they have a vast range of experience in operational and investment due diligence practices.”

• ‘Subscription squatters’ – more than half have free access to at least one streaming media app through sharing another subscriber’s account
• One third (each) of Gen Z and Millennials are considering cutting streaming video subscriptions in next three months compared to 24% of Baby Boomers

As the pressure mounts on household expenditure, new research reveals that more than one quarter of British consumers are considering cutting their streaming video on demand (SVOD) subscriptions in the next three months to save money. This is more than the number of consumers considering cancelling their media subscriptions to music streaming apps, podcasts or print media subscriptions.

About a quarter (23%) of those surveyed by quantilope, the automated consumer research platform, for its Streaming and Social Platforms study have already cut media subscriptions from their budgets.

Cutting back on streaming services are ways for cash strapped consumers to save some pounds. Those with multiple subscriptions can reduce to just one paid platform, while others can opt to view content for free on platforms such as BBC iPlayer or ITV Hub, or choose to switch to ad-subsidised content that some of the larger providers like Netflix are looking to offer.

Netflix, the established leader in the SVOD market and producer of hit series, such as The Crown and Stranger Things, added over 36 million subscribers during the first year of lockdown as people looked for entertainment at home, but has started to lose subscribers this year.

While competition between the biggest streamers heats up, quantilope’s research finds that Netflix is still the most popular paid-for platform in the UK, with 66% of UK streamers subscribing to this platform, followed by Prime Video (49%), Disney+ (32%). However, these paid-for services compete neck and neck with free streaming services in the UK, such as BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, and Channel 4.

‘Subscription squatters’ in for a shock

quantilope research also reveals that more than half of UK consumers (51%) claim to have free access to at least one streaming media app through sharing another subscriber’s account (compared to 31% of US consumers and just 17% in Germany).  However, with both Netflix and Disney+ having recently announced that they will be getting tougher about platform sharing, these subscription squatters could be in for a shock.

“Streaming video providers are battling to grow revenues and maintain subscribers and understand all too clearly that they are a discretionary spend for cash-strapped households,” said Alex Hall, Associate Director of Research Consulting at quantilope. “With Netflix and Disney+ both introducing lower priced ad-based tiers to help consumers save their pounds, and with the potential that the price of ad free plans will rise, understanding who is most willing to pay is critical for streaming platforms to survive.”

Older users least likely to pay for ad-free streaming

quantilope’s research suggests that while overall most consumers are indifferent about ads, some are more likely to pay to skip ads than others. In the UK, 40% of respondents are willing to pay to skip over ads while streaming content, which is lower than in the US (55%) and Germany (45%).  While 35% of UK consumers either hate ads or don’t enjoy ads on video streaming platforms, 30% are indifferent, 24% enjoy them and 10% love them.

More than half (52%) claim they would pay up to £10 to avoid ads and 37% would pay between £10 and £25. More Baby Boomers, who may be accustomed to ads during their content viewing, are the least willing to pay to skip ads (58% say they are somewhat/extremely unwilling), in contrast to the 67% of Generation Z respondents who are extremely willing to pay.

“The streaming wars are in full flow,” mentioned Jenna Stearns, author of the study at quantilope, “and the battle between the top providers looks set to become fast paced this year as payment plans shift. Targeted messaging for users according to their willingness to pay will become increasingly important for streaming providers. Older consumers, who are clear that they do not want to ‘pay to play’, could be an interesting target segment for smart streaming providers. They could target this group by emphasizing a whole new viewing experience that comes with the perks of a paid subscription, or by bundling a streaming service with another form of media preferred by this generation; perhaps partnering with audio platforms or print media subscriptions.”

Other UK research highlights:

• Boomers less likely to cut streaming services – Older respondents, the ‘Boomers’, are least likely to consider axing their TV/Video streaming provider in the next few months with just 24% saying they are considering it compared to 32% of Gen Z and 33% of Millennials. 

• Social media is top for news among Gen Z – this generation accesses their news through social media platforms (67%), but news websites are still the most common way for all Brits to access news (64%). 42% of Brits listen to news on the radio while 41% get their news from Cable television, and 39% have a news app such as Apple News or Google News. Just 28% read a physical print newspaper.

• 15% of all surveyed British respondents predict they will spend less time on social media in the future, though most (66%) predict their social media activity will not change at all. 33% of Gen Z and 19% of Millennials claim their use of social media is likely to increasein the future.

• TikTok and Snapchat are similarly associated as ‘mindless’ and ‘for younger crowds’ – When it comes to understanding how people feel about social media, quantilope used its automated Multiple Implicit Associations Test (MAT); a research methodology based on neuroscience that can capture consumers subconscious associations towards multiple brands or products, to review the deep-rooted sentiment for eight social platforms. TikTok and Snapchat are similarly associated as ‘mindless’ and ‘for younger crowds’ – however, these two platforms’ personas differ: TikTok is ‘trendy’, ‘lively’, ‘quirky’, and ‘humorous’, while Snapchat’s persona is more closely aligned with Facebook and Twitter as ‘annoying’ and ‘lame’. Facebook and Twitter are also similarly associated as ‘draining’, ‘upsetting’, and ‘stressful’.

Thursday 8 September 2022

Policy Monitor has developed CSPM to bring cyber security best practices, regulatory standards, policies and workflows to organisations of all sizes

Cyber Security Policy Monitor (CSPM) will be demonstrated in the IASME Pavilion
27 – 28 September at London, Olympia

Policy Monitor, London-based cyber security and risk management experts, will launch Cyber Security Policy Monitor (CSPM) at this year’s International Cyber Expo in London. CSPM is a simple and cost-effective cloud-based solution that helps measure, manage and monitor an organisation’s cyber security workflow and compliance. The information security management system gives cyber security peace of mind to organisations of all sizes, including SMEs.

Policy Monitor will be exhibiting and demonstrating the power of Cyber Security Policy Monitor in the IASME Pavilion at the International Cyber Expo at Olympia, London on September 27th and 28th. This year the event is co-located with International Security Expo 2022 and will attract visitors from around the world. With the cyber threats ever evolving and investment in the sector increasing to an estimated £8.9 billion, the UK is recognised as a leader in the field of cyber security and the event will showcase the latest research and innovations, providing an ideal setting to launch CSPM.

CSPM enables organisations to:
• Locate relevant knowledge by consolidating relevant and useful sites into a single portal from which they can be accessed
• Define their own security policy as a series of simple workflows covering cyber security awareness and training, preventative tasks and how to respond to incidents. The status of assets is listed in CSPM, which schedules regular tasks or initiates tasks in response to an event to implement the security policy
• Run through the pre-loaded IASME questions, prepare a response and load it into the IASME portal for assessment by Policy Monitor’s consultants, who are an IASME certification body
• Link IASME responses to the company’s security policy and prove that it complies with IASME throughout the year
• Show an audit trail to prove compliance during the year
• Integrate with external asset management and cyber security technology so that the risks identified are consolidated into a single picture visible on the dashboard
• An at-a-glance KPI dashboard shows management a full cyber security status overview enabling the board to monitor compliance across the business and take action before policies are breached.

Cyber Essentials and IASME templates are pre-loaded to embed cyber security best practice and help define, implement and monitor security policies. There are also US, NIST and HIPAA templates and additional templates which can be created to meet customer needs.

Nick Denning, CEO, Policy Monitor said, “With cyber threats increasing, we want to ensure that the UK is the safest place to do business. Over 60% of SMEs* have reported a data breach in the last year and so Policy Monitor has developed CSPM to bring cyber security best practices, regulatory standards, policies and workflows to organisations of all sizes. CSPM brings support to every stage of the cyber security compliance process. We’ve made sure it is simple to use and easy to manage, removing cost and complexity. It is important for businesses and the UK economy that effective cyber security solutions are available to all so we offer CSPM with a range of affordable SME pricing options.”

Policy Monitor will be providing cyber security advice and demonstrating CSPM live at International Cyber Expo 2022 on stand B60 in the IASME Pavilion @IntCyberExpo #ISE2022.

Almost half surveyed say they are using hybrid cloud or local cloud service providers
as an alternative to AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud to meet sovereignty requirements

London, UK – 13 September 2022 – Scality today announced the results of an independent survey of IT decision makers across France, Germany, the UK, and the US about their data sovereignty strategies. 98% of organisations already have policies in place or have plans to implement them. To achieve data sovereignty, 49% of IT decision makers are using hybrid cloud or regional cloud service providers as an alternative to the public cloud.

137 out of 194 countries in the world have data protection and privacy legislation in place.1 As a result, organisations must adhere to the data residency guidance and local regulations required for data collection and processing.

According to the survey — conducted by global technology market research firm Vanson Bourne — the vast majority of organisations across all four countries either have sovereignty regulations or policies in place to keep their data in specific locations (80%) or have plans to do so (18%). The report reveals minimal differences between France (where 81% of respondents have policies in place), Germany (79%), UK (82%), and US (78%). Just 2% of respondents worldwide said they do not have sovereignty policies in place, nor do they plan to implement them.

Cloud technologies will benefit from this trend, with IT teams employing a number of data storage strategies to achieve sovereignty. Across the four geographies, of the organisations that have sovereignty policies or plans:

1. 40% primarily (will) store their data on a large public cloud, such as regional offerings by AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud
2. 36% of respondents (will) deploy a combined on-premises/public cloud solution, i.e. hybrid cloud
3. 13% (will) store their data with a regional cloud service provider
4. 11% (will) use an on-premises data centre.

While some large public cloud providers offer options to store data in specific regions, this isn’t suitable for many organisations that own highly sensitive data, or who wish to avoid vendor lock in and high data access or egress fees.

Hybrid cloud sovereignty emerges as viable strategy to meet regulations
36% of respondents opted for a solution that combines on-premises or private cloud/s with public cloud/s. This hybrid cloud approach provides the flexibility and control to store data locally for data residency and sovereignty while providing the freedom to easily migrate data to a different platform at any time.

Paul Speciale, chief marketing officer, Scality said: “It’s extremely encouraging to see that such a high number of organisations in the US as well as Europe are taking data sovereignty seriously and have plans in place, including a significant shift toward hybrid-cloud strategies. This can certainly help organisations prevent cloud lock-in and provide safety in having data stored locally or in multiple locations. The surprisingly high results in the US could be due to growing concerns regarding China’s strength in technology development.”

In the survey, detailed further in this blog, IT decision makers from several industries including manufacturing, telecom, professional services, financial services, and retail, were asked: “To what extent does your organisation have sovereignty regulations or policies in place to keep your data in specific locations (e.g., local, in specific countries or regions)?” Respondents that currently have or are planning sovereignty regulations to keep data in specific locations were asked: “How are you primarily storing or planning to store the data?”

Key findings in the UK include:

1. 82% of UK respondents have already adopted data sovereignty policies, and 13% have plans to do so; 5% do not plan to implement them, and are most likely to come from a smaller sized organisation (1,000-2,999 employees)
2. In the UK, organisations from the IT, technology, and telecoms sector (92%), the business and professional services sector (90%), and the financial services sector (88%) are most likely to already have policies in place
3. Manufacturing organisations are significantly behind the UK average of 82%, with 62% having policies in place, while 31% have plans to implement them 
4. To implement data sovereignty policies, 33% of UK respondents (will) use a large public cloud service, 42% a hybrid cloud, 14% a regional service provider, and 12% an on-premises data centre 
5. UK respondents from smaller organisations (1,000-2,999 employees) compared to larger organisations (3,000+ employees) are significantly more likely to select a public cloud service (45% vs 25%), and less likely to select a hybrid cloud (32% vs 49%).