"We should have gone to a decent [security] company to advise us better," he joked.

However, Branson said that the loss of personal data "did not really matter" as his family escaped the blaze.

"You do realise in the end that you need to back up things from a business point of view and it's stupid not to do it properly but in the end photographs and notebooks are nice to have but not that important."

Hamish Barwick travelled to Focus11 as a guest of McAfee

Got a security tip-off? Contact Hamish Barwick at hamish_barwick at idg.com.au