Cyber Alert: Protect And Prevent Data Loss

Most businesses around the world are having trouble protecting their data and losing trillions of dollars through data loss and unplanned downtime. According to the Global Data Protection Index survey released by Dell EMC, 27 per cent of respondents said their firms had suffered “irreparable data loss” in the previous 12 months.

Key Findings:

• On average, organizations managed 9.70PB of data in 2018, representing an explosive growth of 569 percent compared to the 1.45PB managed in 2016.
• Globally, 92 percent of businesses see the potential value of data, with 36 percent already monetizing it.
• Of those surveyed, 76 percent experienced a disruption in the last 12 months, and 27 percent experienced irreparable data loss, nearly double the 14 percent in 2016.
• More than a third (35 percent) of respondents are very confident that their data protection infrastructure is compliant with existing regulations, but only 16 percent believe their data protection solutions will meet all future challenges.
• Nearly half (45 percent) of those surveyed are struggling to find suitable data protection solutions for newer technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning.

The research, which surveyed 2,200 IT decision makers from both public and private organizations with 250+ employees across 18 countries and 11 industries, provides a comprehensive understanding of the state of data protection and the maturity of data protection strategies. Specifically, the Index uncovered an increase in the average amount of data managed – from 1.45 petabytes (PB) in 2016 to 9.70PB in 2018 – and a high awareness of the value of data.

 “If you don’t have the right investment in the right data protection systems, we’ve seen a big increase in the inability to recover data from current data protection methods or products,” Ruya Atac-Barrett, Dell EMC’s vice-president of marketing for data protection products, said in an interview.

“If you are protected against unplanned system downtime or outage or attacks — even ransomware — with robust data protection strategy there should be no reason why you are irreparably damaged.”

The sheer volume of data and its importance to business operations make data protection that much more challenging. Disruption incidents are occurring frequently, but more alarming is the increasing amount of irreversible data loss. More than three-quarters (76%) of respondents globally experienced some type of disruption within a 12-month period, and 27% were unable to recover data using their existing data protection solution.

The majority respondents said they face at least one challenge in relation to data protection. The top three challenges business owners face include:

• The lack of data protection solutions for emerging technologies (ranked 2nd globally)
• Ensuring compliancy with regulations like GDPR (ranked 3rd globally)
• Ballooning costs of storing and managing backup copies due to rapid data growth ranked first at (ranked 1st globally).

In most cases, the report concludes, organizations need to improve their data protection infrastructure – the majority of respondents highlight at least one area that could be improved or that they do not have confidence in.

How can Techcess CyberSecurity Group help?

The Techcess CyberSecurity Group helps Small & Mid-Size Businesses establish effective security controls around sensitive assets and balances the needs to reduce cyber risk while enabling productivity, business growth, and cost-optimization objectives. Located in Houston, Texas, we strive to provide our clients with enterprise-level security services to ward off and eliminate both run-of-the-mill security issues and the most destructive security threats many businesses face. To get started protecting your business’ digital assets, call us today at 1-833-892-9237.