Up to 190 million individuals could be affected by a data loss in 2009, it has been prophesised.

KPMG, the international audit, tax and advisory service specialist, said its Data Loss Barometer has predicted the number of people affected by data leaks will rise by as many as 92 million on 2008 figures.

It is estimated that 47.8 million people have been affected by data loss incidents in the three months leading up to November 2008, which far outdid the preceding eight months, when 34.5 million people across the UK were hit by the problem.

The Data Loss Barometer also showed that the number of data loss cases which had been reported throughout 2008 will hit 427, up from 412 occurrences in the previous year.

Now the biggest integrated accounting firm on the continent, KPMG's UK operations are part of KPMG Europe, working with 10,000 partners in 22 British offices.

More than half of small businesses (53 per cent) believe that the most important benefit of outsourcing is guaranteed response times for IT support. London-based Connect conducted the research in 2007.