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UK-based online backup vendor Clunk Click has won a small victory in a David and Goliath-style battle with the Cabinet Office, following the government’s refusal to recommend UK companies on its Get Safe Online web site.
Clunk Click has been lobbying the Cabinet Office to promote UK-based backup vendors on its Get Safe Online portal, which is aimed at helping UK SMEs and individuals to use the web securely. Previously, the government was only promoting US backup vendors. Last week, the Cabinet Office agreed to add Clunk Click to the site. However, the vendor said the battle is not over.
Paul Robert, managing director of Clunk Click, said: “When we discovered that the UK government was promoting US companies on the site, at the expense of UK businesses, we were shocked and took steps to rectify the situation.”
He added that the Cabinet Office has refused to remove the US companies from the site.
“We were amazed at the reaction of the Cabinet Office,” Robert said. “It is staggering, particularly as we have been pressing the point that UK business and personal data is being put at risk by relatively lax data protection laws in the US. We will not stop here because we intend to make the government see sense over this issue.”
Peter Groucutt, managing director of rival UK online backup firm DataBarracks, supported Clunk Click’s campaign.
“I think this shows an ignorance on the government’s part over the online data backup arena and the Data Protection Act,” he said.
Groucutt added he was very surprised that an informative web site would even contemplate sending UK firms to back up their data with a US company.
“Storing data with a US company would take a huge amount of bandwidth for a UK SME,” he said. “To restore 100GB of data from a US backup provider, even if the customer had a 1GB dedicated pipe, would still take about nine days. If this was stored with a UK company, we could ensure it was done within 24 hours.”
The Cabinet Office was unavailable for comment as CRN was going to press. C
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