Many of you will know that a few weeks ago we had National Identity Fraud Prevention Week and clearly the FSB, with over 200,000 members has something to say on this. My own personal view is that identity theft, (which is one of the fastest growing crimes in the UK) is something we need to take very seriously. It seems that many of our smaller businesses are hanging onto sensitive documents instead of destroying them once done with - and worse still they're not doing enough to check on their customers and suppliers. 

Considering that the livelihoods of over 12 million employees are at risk this is something we should all be taking very seriously. I'm long past the point of trusting complete strangers who ring, fax or email and taking that attitude has saved me months of paperwork-chasing.  Your identity can be stolen in so many different ways, from email 'phishing' attacks  - for example FSBs members still respond to emails pretending to be from Barclays bank asking customers to update their personal details - to someone intercepting your post or even more complex scams where fraudsters can even manage to take over financial bonds in your name and open bank accounts.  One place I often point to for advice is www.stop-idfraud.co.uk which gives more advice and info to businesses about how to protect themselves. 

Businesses need to protect sensitive information not just about themselves but of their customers and clients too - sadly, research indicates that this isn't happening.