In the wake of the child benefit privacy breach, it has been argued that IT security should be taught in schools to young children.

Making it clear to youngsters of the potential importance of data security should be a major objective of the computing curriculum at secondary school, suggests Guardian journalist Charles Arthur.

He called for a "shake up" of the way computing is taught in schools as it is "the only way that our government's computing systems can avoid being the laughing stock not only of the rest of the world, but also of its own citizens".

Company information can be just as critical as privacy data held by public services, but while the government is used to taking flak, businesses could be fatally wounded by bad press over a lapse in their IT data security.

Worryingly, a recent study presented at the Harvard University Privacy Symposium showed that 73 per cent of companies have experienced a loss of data in the past two years, with the transfer of information to mobile devices mainly to blame.

It therefore seems prudent for IT support services to make clear to all staff what measures have been put in place to keep data secure.