Firms warned: prepare for data protection regulation

States chief information officer Colin Vaudin has repeatedly campaigned for senior figures in business to take responsibility for data issues, particularly as they are the people who will have to front up in public and attempt to salvage the company's reputation if data breaches occur.

'The CEO or COO will be called out to face the media in the event of a serious breach,' he said.

'If that person doesn't understand the issue they will be seen through immediately. A board member needs to offer trust and reassurance at these times.

'There is a window of opportunity. Nominate someone on the board to be responsible for this and that person can get ready for the questions that are going to come along in the public domain very shortly after May next year,' he said to a packed seminar organised by Sure on cyber security.

Also on the panel were Johan Dreyer, director of technical services at Mimecast, international specialists in cloud-based email management, Wayne Atkinson, group partner at law firm Collas Crill and Justin Bellinger, digital champion at Sure.