Latest news with #dataLoss
Yahoo
03-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New Willis survey highlights changing global trends in cyber risk strategy for directors and officers
LONDON, July 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Data loss and cyber-attacks were identified as two of the top three risks to directors and officers, according to the latest Cyber Directors' and Officers' Survey Report by Willis, a WTW business, (NASDAQ:WTW). The survey gathered responses from a range of sectors, including the services sector (24%) and finance and insurance (19%), with more than half representing for-profit, private companies. Among those surveyed, Great Britain was the only region to identify cyber-attacks (excluding cyber extortion) as the top risk. In contrast, respondents from North America and the Middle East ranked data loss as their primary concern. Despite growing awareness of cyber-attacks and recent high-profile incidents, the risk ranking for cyber-attacks reduced by 2% between 2024 and 2025. The remainder of the survey explores potential reasons behind this change. Key points are as follows: Frequency of cybersecurity updates: The survey found that the frequency of updates to boards on cyber security shifted. Last year, the survey illustrated that 20% of respondents only updated their board in response to an incident, which has decreased to 12% in 2025. The number of respondents who update their board on cyber security monthly increased from 18% to 28% between 2024-2025 Sponsorship trends: Respondents indicated an increased involvement from an officer outside of senior leadership, which suggested a need to engage both strategic and technical stakeholders to manage cyber risk most effectively Incident response: 80% of respondents indicated that they have put a cyber incident response in place, with more than two thirds indicating that they have completed an incident response exercise in the past 12 months Preparation: 65% of respondents feel they are well prepared to manage a cyber incident effectively (compared with 56% in 2024) Cyber risk strategy budget: Respondents indicated that cyber security budgets will continue to increase in 2025 but to a lesser extent than 2024 (56% versus 63% respectively) Cyber insurance: Cybersecurity risks were ranked as the most important aspect of directors' and officers' liability insurance coverage. More than half of respondents (53%) indicated that they have cyber insurance in place, with a further 18% planning to purchase it in the next two years. Adrian Ruiz, head of FINEX GB Cyber & TMT, WTW, said: "Building a strong cyber security culture that engages all levels of the organisation is critical to managing today's evolving threats. From investing wisely in training and technology to regularly testing response plans, businesses must take a proactive, strategic approach to cyber risk. The survey highlights the importance of staying informed and adapting in an increasingly complex digital landscape." The report can be downloaded here. About the survey: The survey provides a global view of the perceptions of risk among directors, officers, and risk managers from countries around the world. Once again, this year's survey provides insights into the distribution of companies by type, revenue and industry. For-profit, private companies are the most represented, accounting for 56% of the respondents, followed by for-profit, listed companies at 32%. In terms of revenue, 33% of the companies have revenues between $0 and $50 million, another 33% have revenues between $50 million and $1 billion. The services industry makes up the largest proportion of respondents followed by transportation and retail and finance and insurance. About WTW At WTW (NASDAQ: WTW), we provide data-driven, insight-led solutions in the areas of people, risk and capital. Leveraging the global view and local expertise of our colleagues serving 140 countries and markets, we help organizations sharpen their strategy, enhance organizational resilience, motivate their workforce and maximize performance. Working shoulder to shoulder with our clients, we uncover opportunities for sustainable success—and provide perspective that moves you. Learn more at Media contact Lauren David: / +44 7385947619 Haggie Partners WTW@ / + 44 20 7562 4444Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Entrepreneur
01-07-2025
- Business
- Entrepreneur
5 Data Backup Mistakes that Could Bankrupt Your Startup
From treating cloud storage as backup to neglecting encryption, these common blunders have shut down 51% of businesses within two years after data loss. Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. In the current information age, data disasters have become the biggest threat to businesses. Based on a 2024 data loss statistics report, 51% of businesses that suffer data loss shut down within two years, and 43% never reopen their doors. Although most startups take the precaution of backing up their data, many of them do not do that properly. In this article, I will list five of the most common data backup mistakes that could derail your startup and how to fix them fast. Mistake 1: Taking cloud storage as backup One of the biggest misconceptions is taking data sync on cloud storage as an auto backup mechanism. Actually, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive and Dropbox are storage solutions, not backup solutions. Data sync helps when your local device is damaged or lost. But if you delete an important file on the local device by mistake, or your file is encrypted by ransomware, the copy on the cloud drive will also be deleted or encrypted. I've encountered many such cases. For example, a design company enables sync between the local drive and Google Drive. One day, the hacker attacks their local systems and encrypts all the drawing files. When they detect the attack, they resort to Google Drive, but only find that all the copies on the cloud are also encrypted! Solution: Find or implement a true backup solution that will create a separate and isolated copy of your data. The solution can be based on cloud storage. However, recent trends show ransomware will not only attack the original data, but also infect the backups. Therefore, to protect your backups from ransomware, it is better to make a backup that is completely physically isolated from your device and the internet. Related: 5 Reasons to Make Regular Data Backups a Part of Your Business Plan Mistake 2: Backup via copy Startups normally ask their employees to back up via copying files to an external hard drive, to save the cost of purchasing a professional backup solution. But this method has the following disadvantages: Over time, it will become more and more complex to manage multiple backup versions. Backing up duplicates files and data repeatedly in different backup versions, wasting a lot of time and unnecessary disk space. Solution: It is more cost-effective to choose a professional backup solution because it can: Manage the backup versions on different time points easily. Most of the solutions support incremental or differential backups, which will only back up the difference since the last backup or last full backup, saving a lot of disk space and time. Mistake 3: Manual backup Similar to mistake two, startups normally choose to backup manually instead of automating the process. But there are many problems with this method: Employees may forget to back up even if there is a regular backup policy. Due to human inertia, employees who initially follow the backup rules may gradually begin to slack off. The backup process will consume a lot of time and system resources, affecting the normal workflow of the employees. Solution: It is always recommended to automate the backup process, because: Data will always be backed up on the scheduled time, not affected by human factors. By scheduling backup time on off-business or off-peak hours, the backup process will not affect the normal workflow or the computer performance greatly. Even if you cannot automate the backup process completely, you should choose a solution that allows you to perform the backup via one-click or one-press instead of a lot of operations, which will make employees more willing to perform the backup regularly. Related: Why Every Small Business Needs a Backup and Disaster Recovery Plan Mistake 4: Backup without encryption Many startups will use various mechanisms to protect their sensitive data, such as privileged access management, multifactor authentication, etc., but neglect the protection of their backup data. Whenever the backup devices are lost, stolen, or the cloud data center for the backup is invaded by hackers, a data breach occurs. IBM report shows that the global average cost of a data breach in 2024 is 4.9 million USD. Other than financial losses, data breaches can also lead to compliance issues and may even result in business closure. Solution: Find a backup solution with encryption support. Make sure you: Use high-strength encryption algorithms. It is recommended to use AES-256 to encrypt and decrypt the backup data since it is fast and secure. Do NOT use obsoleted or insecure algorithms, such as DES and 3DES. Mistake 5: Backup without validation Completing a backup is not the end of your data protection journey — it's just the beginning. The next step is to validate the integrity of the backup data to make sure it can be restored successfully when needed. Validation is very important because: Backup is time-consuming and typically involves a huge volume of data, so any error in the process can corrupt the entire backup. With the elapse of time, the physical devices storing the backup data will deteriorate, causing data corruption. Solution: Find a backup solution that supports validation. And make sure you: Validate the backup immediately after a backup process completes. Validate the old backups regularly. If possible, automate the validation periodically. The startups that last longer are those taking data backup as the core part of their businesses instead of an afterthought. By checking and preventing the five mistakes in this article, you are planning for the worst and turning data vulnerability into resilience. Related: Create a Back-Up Plan for Your Data
The Guardian
22-06-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Thousands of UK government laptops, phones and tablets have been lost or stolen
Thousands of UK government laptops, phones and tablets worth more than £1m have been either lost or stolen, freedom of information disclosures have revealed, triggering warnings of a 'systemic risk' to the nation's cybersecurity. The Department for Work and Pensions recorded 240 missing laptops and 125 missing phones in 2024; while in the first five months of this year the Ministry of Defence recorded 103 missing laptops and 387 missing phones. The Cabinet Office, which coordinates government activity, lost or had stolen 66 laptops and 124 phones in 2024. The replacement cost of the more than 2,000 missing devices recorded across 18 Whitehall departments and public authorities in the last year for which figures are available is running at about £1.3m annually, according to Guardian analysis of freedom of information responses. The Bank of England, HM Treasury and the Home Office were among other departments where dozens of phones and laptops went missing. Cybersecurity experts said the losses could enable hackers to create backdoors into government systems even if large parts of the hardware were encrypted. One called it 'a huge national security risk', but the government downplayed the danger, saying that encryption prevented access to bad actors. 'These are surprisingly large numbers,' said Prof Alan Woodward, a cybersecurity expert at the University of Surrey. 'When you are talking about so many [it creates] a large attack surface [for hackers]. If 1% were system administrators who had their phones stolen, that's enough to get in.' He said that if devices were open when stolen, as frequently happens with phones snatched on the street, criminals could keep them open and 'drill down into the device and once the phone is open, by design it is readable and accessible'. The Ministry of Defence said it had robust policies and procedures to prevent losses and thefts. It said: 'Encryption on devices ensures any data is safeguarded and prevents access to the defence network.' The Bank of England said it 'takes the security of devices and data very seriously and has suitable protection in place'. A government spokesperson said: 'We take the security of government devices extremely seriously, which is why items such as laptops and mobile phones are always encrypted so any loss does not compromise security.' It added that every loss or theft was investigated. 'The device loss seems quite high,' said Nick Jackson, the chief information security officer at Bitdefender, a cybersecurity firm. 'It only takes one lost [device] to compromise a network. It poses a systemic risk and is something that could potentially be taken more seriously especially given the access and connections that department will have.' Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion He said laptops were likely to have encryption, but tablets or phones presented a greater risk. Jackson said: 'The biggest risk is that the devices themselves will have access to sensitive information and authentication tokens. If someone was able to gain access to those they would be able complete authentication processes on any government application or government website that they shouldn't be able to access.' The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, which is responsible for cybersecurity, recorded 83 phones and 18 laptops lost or stolen in the year to May 2025. In 2024, the Home Office, which oversees policing, had 147 devices go missing at an estimated replacement cost of more than £85,000. An MoD spokesperson said: 'We treat all breaches of security very seriously and we require all suspected breaches to be reported. All incidents are subjected to an initial security risk assessment, with further action taken on a proportionate basis.' David Gee, the chief marketing officer of Cellebrite, a digital forensics and cybersecurity firm that works with the Metropolitan police, said: 'Missing devices pose a huge national security risk, especially coming from public sector departments where they hold vast amounts of sensitive data. From healthcare departments to defence, staff phones and laptops must be protected at all costs, and keeping data safe in these government agencies should be a top priority.'
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
85% of Organizations Experienced Data Loss in 2024: New DataNumen Report Reveals Alarming Trends
Sheridan, Wyoming--(Newsfile Corp. - May 29, 2025) - DataNumen, a global leader in data recovery solutions, has released its highly anticipated Data Loss Statistics Report 2024, shedding light on the severity, causes, and consequences of data loss incidents across businesses worldwide. According to the report, an overwhelming 85% of organizations experienced one or more data loss incidents over the past year. Even more concerning, 93% of businesses that suffer prolonged data loss lasting more than 10 days go bankrupt within a year, underscoring the catastrophic impact such events can have on long-term business viability. Key Findings: Hardware failure remains the leading technical cause of data loss (40-44%), followed by human error (29-32%). 33% of users send at least two misdirected emails annually—posing a major risk for data exposure. The average cost of downtime ranges from $427 per minute for small businesses to $9,000 per minute for larger enterprises. 93% of companies suffering data loss for more than 10 days file for bankruptcy within one year. Only 38% of businesses have a mature Data Loss Prevention (DLP) program in place. "Our research confirms that data loss is not just an IT issue — it's a critical business risk," said Chongwei Chen, President & CEO of DataNumen. "The consequences go beyond lost files. We're talking about massive financial losses, operational disruption, reputational damage, and in many cases, the end of the business itself." The report also highlights the growing threat of generative AI misuse, with AI-related alerts rapidly becoming one of the most frequently implemented data loss prevention rules. About DataNumen DataNumen is a world-renowned data recovery company serving customers in over 240 countries and regions. Its award-winning software is trusted by Fortune 500 companies, governments, and consumers worldwide to recover lost or damaged data from all types of storage media. For more information about DataNumen and its products, visit Links: Company website: Report URL: Data Loss Statistics Report 2024 Media Contact: Alan Chen DataNumen, Inc. E-Mail: pr@ To view the source version of this press release, please visit Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
