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RISK-UK NEWS
All your own fault!

Kroll Ontrack
A recent survey on the causes of data loss carried out by Kroll Ontrack found that 40 percent of home, business, government and channel users of information technology believe human error is the leading cause of data loss, up from eleven percent in 2005. While hardware and software errors still account for a significant amount of believed failures, this result illustrates the perceived complexity associated with implementing and maintaining today's storage technology.

Kroll Ontrack asked more than 2,000 participants from 17 countries across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific to explain the cause of their most recent data loss, and a staggering 40 percent of respondents believed that human error was a leading cause, even though only 27 percent said they could actually attribute a recent loss to human error. A further 29 percent identified hardware/system failure as the cause of their most recent data loss, which was reported as the cause of data loss by 56 percent of respondents in a similar survey in 2005. Despite the reported decline in hardware/system failures, UK Ontrack Data Recovery engineers have seen consistent percentages in hardware failures over the past five years.

Data loss attributed to computer viruses and natural disasters remained fairly low. In the 2010 survey, computer viruses accounted for less than seven percent of recent data loss incidents, compared to four percent in 2005. Similarly, natural disasters were responsible for three percent of incidents in 2010, versus two percent in 2005.

"While technology and technology aptitude continue to improve year over year, the reality is that hardware failures, as well as human errors, continue to be factors," said Robert Winter, chief engineer, Ontrack Data Recovery, Kroll Ontrack. "No one factor can ever truly be overcome, making data loss a reality. Consequently, it is not a matter of if, but rather a matter of when. As a result, businesses and home users alike cannot rely on hope as their strategy. Instead, they must take proactive measures to ensure the individuals operating the storage system have current training, working redundancies and a continuity plan that is current and accessible in the event of a loss."

Surprisingly, while more than 90 percent of those surveyed have lost information, 18 percent "did not know" how their data loss occurred. This demonstrates an urgent need to educate businesses and consumers broadly on data recovery causes, protection tools and strategies, as well as the recovery protocol in the event of a data loss, ensuring further damage is not caused.

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