Data loss continues to dog modern businesses. They can lose their valuable information if they don’t perform timely Office 365 backup. Sadly, data loss has detrimental effects on businesses, exposing a business to different risks like financial losses and even legal action. Don’t forget, online criminals can ride on data leakages to steal personal data from millions of users.
You don’t need to sit back and wait for your business to enter the victim roll of loss. Update yourself on its disastrous consequences and take charge of your data. Keep reading below to discover more.
Lost Customer Loyalty
First, data loss can rob you of one of the most critical business assets—the customer. Remember, you don’t have a reason to do business without customers. Thus, any loss that can make your customer shift allegiance is your business’s number one enemy.
When companies lose data, especially their customers’ personal details, they have a tough time convincing them to continue doing business with them. The reason is that when you can’t prove to your clients that you can safeguard their data, it’s nearly impossible to convince them you can handle their money.
Disrupted Productivity
All data losses cause downtime when your business goes down and can’t function. Downtime hampers your business productivity. Thus, you can’t operate and serve your customers. This disruption means that you will lose business during that time. Downtime is so critical that you are most likely to close down if you don’t recover normal operations within ten days.
A Damaged Reputation
A good name is an invaluable asset you can’t afford to lose. Unfortunately, data loss can cause you to lose such a priceless asset within a short time. When you lose your information and let’s say, people can find it scattered all over the net, and you lose your reputation. The problem with such a damaged reputation is that it’s very hard to repair it. Remember, online and offline technology spreads negative reputation like bush fire.
Exposed Confidential Data
Suffering a data breach could expose your sensitive information to the wrong people, including hackers. For instance, an IBM data breach report shows that average data leakage exposes at least 25,575 records. Moreover, each exposed record lost through such exposures costs $150.00. This cost comes from downtime, privacy compliance fines and penalties, and restoration.
Possible Business Closure
Business data loss could make you close shop permanently or temporarily, depending on its magnitude. Just look at these figures to get a feel of what it means to lose data.
- 51% of enterprises suffering data losses close down within 24 months.
- 43% of companies that close down never recover business again.
- 93% of businesses that lose data centers for at least ten days following disasters go bankrupt within a year.
Can you see all these looming dangers? They could happen to any business. Therefore, take your data backup seriously to avoid joining the statistics.
The threat of Identity Theft
Identity theft is another threat data loss poses to businesses. When enterprises lose their sensitive information because of malware, natural disasters, or hackers, they are most likely to suffer identity theft.
Hackers can land your lost details and access your employee and other stakeholder identities. For instance, your employees are at risk, especially if you store their credit card or social security details. Don’t forget that thugs can use identity details to trail and harm someone physically.
A Risk of Legal Action
Lastly, it’s important to remember that governments and regional blocs worldwide are legislating strict data protection laws. Therefore, if you lose other people’s data due to your carelessness, you risk facing lawsuits. All these legal battles have massive financial implications in the form of fines and other penalties.
For instance, UK companies risk paying fines of up to £500,000 if they breach the Data Protection Act. This fine applies in cases where a company’s negligence compromises your customers’ or employees’ records.
From hefty fines to lost business and possible business closure, data loss has severe consequences. Moreover, they can strike and paralyze any business regardless of its size and type. Thus, we hope these ugly upshots will inspire you to safeguard your precious business data.
