Mr Camissar said that while we are "moving to a world where cloud services are almost universal", businesses of all sizes are failing to keep pace with the technology.

He noted that at the most basic level, 37 per cent of the survey's 452 Australian respondents failed to check whether their cloud provider complied with the basic standards outlined in the Australian Privacy Act.

Mr Camissar suggested that any business looking to employ cloud-based services should research the provider first, including finding out about its public reputation, where its data servers are located and whether it is fully accredited.

This is particularly pertinent, he said, given that according to Intel’s study, 70 per cent of information stored on the cloud is personally identifiable, and nearly half of the respondents (48 per cent) even keep network passwords saved on the cloud.

Neil Stollznow of StollzNow Research, which conducted the research on behalf of Intel Security, said the most surprising finding was that in profiling business responses to cyber security, the survey actually educated many about the need for such measures.

"Your survey raised issues I will discuss with our CIO – thank you," one respondent noted.

"It's a bit scary when your questionnaire educates people," Mr Stollznow said.

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