A poll by the ICAEW's IT Faculty found that around half of its members believed redundancies and cost reductions increased operational risk and impacted the effectiveness of day-to-day operations.

The survey questioned chief financial officers, finance directors and head of operational risk for a roundtable on risk for the Faculty. The results show respondents thought the recession increased external and internal IT security breaches, namely from disgruntled employees.

Two thirds of respondents found they faced greater operational risk now than this time last year and 39% believe internal security breaches, including employee theft of information, are a major concern.

Roland Brook, associate director Smith & Williamson, who attended the event said: 'Resilience has become much more of a major focus for our clients over the past year as many have had to contend with new threats such as internal sabotage from disgruntled employees and external security breaches which have dramatically increased in the recession.

Other findings include 70% of those polled found they are more at risk from damaging supply chain issues, such as business partners going out of business, compared to a year ago and a third said risk and resilience are now discussed at board level.

John Oates, of Baker Tilly and chairman of the ICAEW IT Faculty, said: 'In the last 12 months we have seen operational risk rise up the business agenda as organisations identify new threats to their business, not least that caused by growing numbers of redundancies, both in terms of loss of knowledge and malicious attempts by departing employees to exact revenge on their employers.'

'More than ever, organisations need to create contingency plans that are water-tight and workable, but also flexible enough to cope with the new and unexpected threats thrown up by the current economy.' He added.

Further reading:

John Oates elected chairman of IT Faculty