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Microsoft Data Loss Findings |
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Data loss may not seem like a security threat, but it is—if you lose data, does it really matter whether you lost it due to a cup of coffee in your laptop or because of a network attack? It's still gone.
Approximately six percent of all business personal computers experienced an episode of data loss in 1998.
Hardware failure was the most common cause of data loss, accounting for 42 percent of data loss incidents, and includes losses due to hard drive failure and power surges.
Human error accounted for 30 percent of data loss episodes, and includes accidental deletion of data, as well as accidental damage done to the hardware (for example, damage caused by dropping a laptop).
Software corruption accounted for 13 percent of data loss incidents.
Computer viruses, including boot sector and file infecting viruses, accounted for 7 percent of data loss episodes.
Theft, especially prevalent among laptops, accounted for 5 percent of data loss incidents.
Finally, hardware destruction, which includes damage caused by floods, lightning, and brownouts, accounted for 3 percent of all data loss incidents.
These incidents, on average, cost about $2,550 each when you factor in the cost of replacing the lost data and repairing or replacing equipment as necessary.
source: microsoft
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