17 Jun 2009

Companies 'unaware of true cost of data loss'

The majority of businesses continue to underestimate the impact that data loss can have on productivity and profitability, it has been claimed.

Adrian Briscoe, general manager of Ontrack Data Recovery APAC - a division of Kroll Ontrack - argued that there are a number of hidden costs involved in the recovery of lost information folowing a data breach or data loss incident.

Businesses can ofen have to pay staff for overtime to help recover lost data and productivity also takes a hit, while costs for any periods of server downtime or delays in filling orders may increase.

"The best way to manage data loss is to prepare for it before the loss occurs. Organisations need to start applying business continuity and data protection safeguarding measures throughout the entire data lifecycle," Mr Brisco commented.

Meanwhile, a flaw in a virtualised server recently allowed hackers to delete the information contained on more than 100,000 websites.

Disaster recovery efforts carried out by the hosted exchange firm involved were unable to recover more than 50 per cent of the lost information.