When one thinks of data being lost, they typically think of it being stolen. Naturally, this isn’t entirely inaccurate. In Ukraine as recently as 2018, 100 gigabytes of data was stolen from a loan provider. There are constant breaches made in an attempt to secure customer data from car dealerships, airways, and other companies. Yet these don’t make up the majority.
The majority cause of data loss is actually simple human error. Things as simple as a miclick, an accidental deletion, or more seriously a lack of training cause these. They’re made constantly and consistently as long as humans are involved. The second and third leading causes? Malware and unexpected failures.
Malware is what people more commonly think of. This still isn’t someone hacking in per say, more likely it’s phishing, spoofing, and ransomware. These get more robust day after day while security services may struggle to keep up. As for unexpected failures, imagine an earthquake, hardware failure, or a simple glitch.
These three are the real cause of data loss in the U.S and across the globe. Each of them is hard to combat in their own way. AI may replace humans to some extent, but not completely. Malware protections may become more advanced, but so will the malware. And simple failures can be reduced, but never removed. Still, knowing each is vital in preventing it from happening, loss is inevitable, but it can be reduced.
