No matter how effective your data protection strategy is, there is always a risk of losing your digital files. Depending on what caused the data loss and what kinds of digital files were lost, data loss can be a minor inconvenience or a major disaster. According to R-explorer, hardware failure is the leading cause of data loss, with human error trailing right next to it.
In this article, we are going to cover the most common reasons for data loss and see what solutions can help you prevent the risk of losing valuable digital files.
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- Hardware failure. Different hardware components can cause data loss. This includes hard drives, which are prone to failure much faster than other hardware components. You may also face the risk of losing data because of the failure in RAM, motherboard, CPU, power supply, etc.
- Software failures are the next reason for data loss. Some of the most common scenarios of data loss caused by software malfunctioning include application crash, backup errors, errors during video editing and file conversion, incomplete file transfer, false-positive flag by antivirus, etc.
- Human error is another popular factor that causes data loss. This is why training plays a major importance. According to the stats provided by IT experts, 29% of data loss issues are caused by human error. Some of the most common scenarios of data loss caused by human error are overwriting files by mistake, incompetent use of data recovery tools, formatting the disk without making a hard disk drives backup, improper use of data, etc.
- Malware can wreak serious havoc on an OS. Thus, malware can delete or encrypt files on your computer, steal data and passwords, display malicious ads, control your device, etc.
- Device theft. Many digital factors cause data loss. However, you shouldn’t forget about physical causes or theft. A computer or smart device can contain lots of sensitive data, login credentials, document scans, private chats, etc. That’s why you should always lock your devices whenever you are away from them.
- Unless you take proper care of cyber security, your website can become an easy target for hackers. They can find their way to your website through weak passwords, outdated OS or software, misconfigured firewall, etc.
If you have already faced the situation of data loss, there are several steps you can take to prevent it from happening in the future. The steps that let you avoid data loss include:
- Doing backups regularly,
- Taking control of who accesses your data,
- Defragmenting your disk,
- Maintaining your hardware properly,
- Keeping your OS and hardware always up to date,
- Keeping your devices under lock when you are away, etc.
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