Half of finance workers in the UK have said that concerns over security would deter them from storing sensitive personal and commercial information in the cloud.

A survey of 1,000 finance professionals in the UK for Invu, an automated accounts payable and document management software company, found that cloud security remains the top concern, with the most prominent fear related to data back-up and the recover of lost data (cited by 37 per cent of workers).

This was followed by the risk of corruption of data stored on the cloud (31 per cent), fear over control of access to stored data (29 per cent), location of the data (24 per cent) and inappropriate or erroneous data sharing (23 per cent).

Age was a key factor affecting trust in the cloud. While a third of workers under the age of 25 said they had concerns about cloud security, 54 per cent of workers between 35 and 64 said security was their biggest concern, rising to 61 per cent among the over 65s.

Concerns about cloud security ranged from whether a data breach will be detected, ongoing data theft from employees who are leaving or have left the company, and the difficulty of managing hybrid storage environments.

Ironically, while many employees stated concerns over data location as the main reason for not using cloud services, 73 per cent of respondents said their company still relied on paper documents stored in off-site storage facilities.

Ian Smith, general manager and finance director at Invu, said: “Fear uncertainty and doubt about the security of the cloud has been fuelled by the daily flow of data breaches reported in the media.

“The cloud contains the good, the bad and the ugly, just like in any other sphere of life,” he continued. “The good providers of cloud services can demonstrate their security credentials and build trust, however overall trust in the cloud as a network is being diluted by the poor performance of the bad and the ugly.”

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