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Let us start with a few hard facts. 99% of all businesses in the UK (still) do not go in for a daily data back-up (in any format).

 

·          60% of back-ups taken are either incomplete or inadequate in nature. A system crash is the best way to bring the fallacy of storing files all over the OS to the attention of the management.

·          50% of total corporate data restoration attempts fail. This is despite the fact that a good data recovery company in Britain has a high rate of recovery – about 75–85% on average. But the situation is too often beyond the task of recovery professionals (what do you do when your employee leaves the office laptop in the coffee shop and goes home?), or the professionals are not called in early enough. Usually, the firms start with a recovery operation by the in-house ‘specialists’. And end up losing whatever data could have been saved otherwise.

·          Only 25% of businesses go for a complete and updated off-site back-up on tapes, though tapes are used by almost everyone.

·          Compliance of business back-ups according to government guidelines is a princely 8%.

·          43% of all UK companies who go through the experience of data loss without a prefixed recovery plan shut down for good.

 

Consequences for Various Sectors

 

The above figures are very general. Let us now see how data loss affects particular industries.

 

·          The worst blow is dealt to government security organisations when data loss happens. Thankfully, unlike most private firms, the main reason of data loss here is not the ineptness of employees. Attacks by professional hackers, espionage outfits, and terrorist groups have escalated by an alarming margin over the past five years. Finding a small gap is enough for a hacker to get in and make away with information that can endanger a nation. The modern terrorist is not a gun toting semi literate religious fanatic, but a well groomed, intelligent and techno savvy individual.

·          Research and development companies are the next favourites for hackers. Data loss is a particularly terrible thing for such companies since they depend entirely on data for their business. This is a highly competitive area of work, and rival groups keep vigil on one another, stopping at nothing to get hold of the coveted information. Employees running away with stolen data is another massive problem here.

·          Data loss in financial institutions has always been the reason of furore. Credit card thefts have shaken the UK time and again, and public outrage at such incidents has forced some companies to shut down.  

·          Loss of personal information from hospital records is the new kid on the block of data thieves. This is rife in both the UK and USA. It is possible to find out every private detail about sick (and therefore helpless) people who would make excellent victims for credit card thefts, blackmails, and other illegal activities. The humanitarian angle of the situation is ironically the greatest boost for data theft in such cases.

·          Then there is the general area of corporate and private data loss caused through hardware failure, natural disasters, software problems, manufacturing defects, misuse, virus, and human errors.

 

General Consequences of Data Loss

 

 Now let us look at some of the general problems created by data loss.

 

·          The first problem is the loss of time and money. If your business comes to a dead stop thanks to the volume and nature of the data lost, it will not stop the employees from getting paid as usual. You keep incurring the usual infrastructure and maintenance costs and footing all the bills while no work happens. This is the main reason behind the large number of SMEs being forced out of the business is data loss. They just can’t afford it.

·          Let us also not forget the cost of recovering data and the amount that will go in creating a whole new back up system. The professional data recovery firm will be charging several thousands for this.

·          Not all customers take this misfortune sportingly, nor is it possible to do so always. When HP lost important data and tried to hush up the matters, relentless blogging made things difficult for the company. They had lost important customer data purely due to employee carelessness, but were unwilling to own up their mistake in hiring such staff. The bad name that HP gained after this incident is still followed by the media. Thus, bad publicity and loss of customer goodwill is another major fall out of such incidents.

·          In many cases, customers and creditors have filed cases.

·          Business opportunities are lost while the data is restored.