Data Loss Statistics
Did you know...?
Quick Facts
- Simple drive recovery can cost upwards of $7,500 and success is not guaranteed.
- Businesses lose over $12 billion per year because of data loss.
- Hardware or system failure account for 78% of all data loss.
- Human error accounts for 11% of all data loss.
- Software corruption accounts for 7% of all data loss.
- More vital data is being stored in smaller spaces.
- Instant access to electronic data has become more crucial in day-to-day business.
- Disaster prevention and recovery plans are often overlooked or outdated.
- Most backup tools and techniques are not 100% reliable.
- 31% of PC users have lost all of their files due to events beyond their control.
- 34% of companies fail to test their tape backups, and of those that do, 77% have found tape back-up failures.
- 60% of companies that lose their data will shut down within 6 months of the disaster.
Data Loss Statistics report [.pdf] (500 KB) 
Research
6% of all PCs will suffer an episode of data loss in any given year. Given the number of PCs used in US businesses in 1998, that translates to approximately 4.6 million data loss episodes. At a conservative estimate, data loss cost US businesses $11.8 billion in 1998.
- The Cost Of Lost Data, David M. Smith
30% of all businesses that have a major fire go out of business within a year. 70% fail within five years.
- Home Office Computing Magazine
93% of companies that lost their data center for 10 days or more due to a disaster filed for bankruptcy within one year of the disaster. 50% of businesses that found themselves without data management for this same time period filed for bankruptcy immediately.
- National Archives & Records Administration in Washington
American business lost more than $7.6 billion as a result of viruses during first six months of 1999.
- Research by Computer Economics
Companies that aren't able to resume operations within ten days (of a disaster) are not likely to survive.
- Strategic Research Institute
File corruption and data loss are becoming much more common, although loss of productivity continues to be the major cost associated with a virus disaster.
- 7th Annual ICSA Lab's Virus Prevalence Survey, March 2002
The average company spends between $100,000 and $1,000,000 in total ramifications per year for desktop-oriented disasters (both hard and soft costs.)
- 7th Annual ICSA Lab's Virus Prevalence Survey, March 2002
In addition to being more prevalent, computer viruses were more costly, more destructive, and caused more real damage to data and systems than in the past.
- 7th Annual ICSA Lab's Virus Prevalence Survey, March 2002
Of those companies participating in the 2001 Cost of Downtime Survey: 46% said each hour of downtime would cost their companies up to $50k, 28% said each hour would cost between $51K and $250K, 18% said each hour would cost between $251K and $1 million, 8% said it would cost their companies more than $1million per hour.
- Ontrack - 2001 Cost of Downtime Survey Results, 2001
At what point is the survival of your company at risk? 40% said 72 hours, 21% said 48 hours, 15% said 24 hours, 8% said 8 hours, 9% said 4 hours, 3% said 1 hour, 4% said within the hour.
- Ontrack - 2001 Cost of Downtime Survey Results, 2001
