Two surverys this week have exposed serious gaps in business continuity and security plans.

Nearly 60% of IT managers in North America and Europe claim to have comprehensive security policies. Only 18% of them have actually implemented them. Another 19% have not even started to implement them.

The survey by Computer Associates and Quorcirca interviewed 1,200 managers.

In contrast, a survey of disaster recovery took place after the event occurred. A fire in Manchester, devastated whole swathes of the telecom infrastructure and caused havoc economically.

Only 34% of companies actually had a disaster recovery plan. Over 60% of the firms interviewed said their networks and telecommunications had been affected by the fire.

The survey was carried out on behalf of Direct Response, a data services company. 1,043 companies were surveyed.