The adoption of new technologies in the workplace is putting a lot of information at risk, according to a recent report.

Worldwide State of the Endpoint 2010, commissioned by Lumension and conducted by the Ponemon Institute before being published this month, discovered that a lack of resources and executive-level support for many small businesses in IT can result in such problems.

David Emms, senior security researcher, global research and analysis team at Kaspersky, said that the exposure gained by insecure data is enough to power many companies into taking action.

"I think it does need more attention, but it is becoming a very well publicised issue," he explained.

"The most immediate consequence of a loss of data would be embarrassment and loss of reputation for the organisation itself."

Mr Emms also noted that this increased profile of data breaches, as well as the loss of data by organisations, will mean that the Information Commissioner's Office will take more notice if a big company falls foul.

In a recent survey of SMEs for Connect, the two most important benefits of outsourcing were guaranteed response times and allowing in-house IT staff to concentrate on more strategic issues.