Overview: Natural disasters can occur uncontrollably destroying hardware that stores personal or company data. In the event where water is present in a natural disaster, computers can physically experience a short circuit that leads to internal damage where data is lost. Therefore, natural disasters with or without water can destroy computers to their entirety making it nearly impossible to recover lost data. Not only do natural disasters have negative effects on data, but they also have extreme consequences on businesses who experience data loss due to natural disasters. According to Consolidated Technologies Inc., “93% of companies that lost their data center for 10 or more days from a disaster filed for bankruptcy within one year, 50% of companies that lost data management due to a disaster filed for bankruptcy immediately, 30% of businesses that experience a severe fire go out of business within a year, and 70% of businesses that experience a severe fire go out of business within five year.” Therefore, the consequences of data loss by a natural disaster are immense.

Solutions: Natural disasters cannot be prevented; therefore, to reduce the impacts that natural disasters bring to data keepers, data should be backed up on a regular basis (usually once a week) to a secure location or cloud services like Google Drive and iCloud. For additional security, this remote location should not be easily compromisable by natural disasters.

Overview: Data loss from accidental deletion occurs when a human unintendedly deletes data not being aware that they have done so. A simple example of accidental deletion occurs when one is creating or adding to a file. Instead of saving the file prior to terminating it, one may forget and exit without saving.

Solutions: In a business scenario, to prevent this method of data loss from occuring, an employer might want to consider training those whom have access or often handle important company data. Another solution to accidental deletion is the integration of automation. According the Instrument Society of America automation is defined as “the creation and application of technology to monitor and control the production and delivery or products and services.” The implementation of automation to manage company data minimizes the contact between humans and data thus reducing the chance of accidental deletion. At an individual level, to reduce the chance of accidental deletion, one should produce a set of procedures to ensure that the progress of his or her data is saved prior to terminating the data’s program.

Overview: Malicious activities and data breaches have become much more common today; these malicious activities include hacking, theft, or viruses. If there is sufficient access to a party’s data, hackers, thieves, and viruses can destroy a system to its entirety.

Solutions: To prevent data loss from hacking, theft, or viruses, a secure system of cybersecurity should be established. This system should be composed of adequate anti-virus software, strong firewalls, and hard-to-guess passwords that prevent access to sensitive data; this system prevents electronic attack, however to avert physical attacks such as theft or an insider data breach, different physical measures should be taken. In a modern environment, this includes a secure location where computers with important data are stored where only those with permission have access. With the ever-growing problem of data breaches by malicious activities, it is essential that steps such as these are taken to minimize the consequences of data loss.

Overview: Data loss from a system malfunction is considered the most common process of data loss. As defined by Techopedia, “a computer system is a basic, complete functional computer, including all hardware or software required to make it functional for a user.” Therefore, the two types of system malfunctions that can result in data loss can be from software or hardware malfunction.

Solution: To prevent a software malfunction, it is recommended that shut down procedures are developed to ensure that all data progress is saved when a computer experiences an improper shutdown. Additionally, diagnostic programs, an automatic computer program sequence that determines operational status within the software, should be used carefully, so that it does not disrupt shutdown processes. On the other hand, to prevent a hardware malfunction, computers should be kept in a clean, dust free environment to ensure that a computer does not overheat. Additionally, Solid State Drives (SSDs), a new type of hard drive technology, are a better alternative to hard disk drives (HDD). SSDs eliminate a traditional HDD’s high cost, are less likely to crash, and are more durable. Therefore, data is better protected in a computer with an SSD opposed to one with an HDD.

Overview: According to Techopedia, data migration is “the process of transferring data between computers, storage devices or formats.” The migration of systems data takes place to allow server or storage computers to be replaced or updated, website or server maintenance, or data center relocation. During this process, data can be lost due to corruptions during a mass transfer from one storage unit to another. These corruptions can occur prior to the physical transfer of data where old data is read or when the newly transferred data is loaded into the new storage unit. Additionally, data loss can occur when there is a large volume of data being migrated through an inadequate system of equipment. This may result in incomplete data migration or the being data corrupted as a whole.

Solution: Data loss is somewhat common during migration processes, however with correct planning and execution, data migration can occur seamlessly. Data migration itself, interrupts personal or greater business operations and with additional data loss, operations may be suspended for an even longer amount of time. To prevent this, an organized and thorough plan should be created. It should involve requirements of software, adequate equipment, replication, data volume, and data value. Then a method should be created that outlines every step that is taken to ensure a smooth migration process. This method may involve implementing automated data migration which minimizes human contact and therefore the margin of data loss from human error. Additionally, it should examined that only necessary data is being transported which may lead to increased migration speeds.

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