Data loss has serious financial implications. Downtime can occur at any time. Even something as small as an employee opening an infected email, or as significant as a natural disaster.
Despite that, 75% of small businesses have no business continuity plan in place.
We have compiled an interesting mix of disaster recovery statistics from a variety of sources. A disaster recovery plan is a lifeboat for your business.
Hardware failure is the number one cause of data loss and/or downtime.
According to Dynamic Technologies, hardware failures cause 45% of total unplanned downtime. Followed by the loss of power (35%), software failure (34%), data corruption (24%), external security breaches (23%), and accidental user error (20%).
Below are 17 more startling statistics
1. 93% of companies without Disaster Recovery are out of business within one year after suffering a major data disaster.
2. 96% of companies with a trusted backup and disaster recovery plan were able to survive ransomware attacks.
3. More than 50% of companies experienced a downtime event in the past five years that were longer than a full workday.
Recovering Is Expensive
When your business experiences downtime, there is a cost associated with that event. This dollar amount can be pretty tough to pin down as it includes direct expenses such as recovery labor and equipment replacement. But, also indirect costs such as lost business opportunity.
The cost can be staggering:
4. Estimates are that unplanned downtime can cost up to $17,244 per minute, with a low-end estimate of $926 per minute.
5. On average, businesses lose over $100,000 per ransomware incident due to downtime and recovery costs.
6. 40-60% of small businesses who lose access to operational systems and data without a DR plan close their doors forever. Companies that can recover do so at a much higher cost and a longer timeframe than companies who had a formal backup and disaster recovery (BDR) plan in place.
7. 96% of businesses with a disaster recovery solution in place fully recover operations.
Numbers Behind Security Breaches and Attacks
9. In a 2017 survey of 580 attendees of the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas, it was revealed that more than half of the organizations had been the target of cyber attacks. 20% of those attacks came in the form of ransomware.
10. 2/3 of the individuals responding to the survey believe that a significant security breach will occur at their organization in the next year.
11. More than 50% don’t have the budget to recover from the attack.
The Human Element Of Data Loss
Cybercriminals often utilize a human-based method of bypassing security, such as increasingly-sophisticated phishing attacks.
12. Human error is the number one cause of security and data breaches.
13. Cybersecurity training for new employees is critical.
14. The painful reality is that malware can successfully bypass up to 94% of anti-virus software and anti-spam email filters are mostly ineffective against a targeted malware attack.
Evolving Security Threat Matrix
15. By 2021, cybercrimes will cost $6 trillion per year worldwide.
16. Cybersecurity spending is on the rise; reaching $96 billion in 2018.
17. Cryptojacking attacks are increasing by over 8000% as miners exploit the computing power of unsuspecting victims.
Don’t Become a Disaster Recovery Statistic
The good news is that with adequate planning, you can minimize the costs regarding time and lost sales that are associated with disaster recovery.
Backing up and securing your data and systems and having the capability to maintain business as usual in the face of a disaster is no longer a luxury, it is a necessity. Understanding how to put a disaster recovery plan in place is essential.