IOR: Secure data to avoid ‘time-bomb’ data risk to candidates

Thu, 26 Jan 2012

Azmat Mohammed, director-general of the Institute of Recruiters (IOR), says that recruiters must avoid the unsecure transmission of “enough information to clone someone’s identity”.

Mohammed says the recruitment industry is “very concerned” about data security, and reminds recruiters that to comply with best practice guidelines set out by government agency the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), recruiters must ask candidates every single time they send out personal data.

Mohammed was speaking at this morning’s launch of information security company CertiVox’s new Private Sky Secure Information Exchange (SIX) platform.

The firm’s chief executive Brian Spector told an audience that the company’s new product – available on computers, smartphones and tablets – allows data to be encrypted at the point of transmission, rather than when already in the cloud.

It also only requires a single registration in order to encrypt data directly from an email programme, rather than requiring a ‘key’ or password every time.

The IOR is working with CertiVox alongside a number of other technology partners to see how recruiters can benefit from different data security providers.

Mohammed adds that in many cases data security “is ignored in many cases because they [recruiters] assume it’s secure”, and that many people he has spoken to and dealt with see data security as “a ticking time-bomb”.

However, he says that more firms would ensure data security was in place “if the solution was simple”.

This call for better data security comes the same day Google sent users a message informing them: “We’re getting rid of over 60 different privacy policies across Google and replacing them with one that’s a lot shorter and easier to read.”