How much does it cost to lose computer data?

Assessing the cost of IT data loss to your company is no easy task. While benchmark studies suggest alarming trends, they also provide relevant indicators and protocols to help you better manage the risks.

Estimate the cost of computer data loss

Companies should not only consider IT data with an obvious commercial or financial value (databases, CRM data…). Indeed, the value of data depends above all on its nature and criticality. It’s only in the event of loss that many unknown or unappreciated items of corporate data take on their full value:

• Sensitive or confidential data: medical, banking, HR, etc.
• Parameters for robots or automated lines in industry and food processing.
• Data not used for direct production: security of premises, administration, etc.

In addition to the intrinsic value of data, there are the associated expenses and direct costs in the event of loss:

• Expenditure on back-up, prevention and protection solutions.
• Expenses related to detection, recovery and restoration solutions.
• Cost related to downtime, reduced production and employee costs.

The real cost of data loss must also take into account itsindirect financial impact:

• Communication expenses: customer alert, legal declaration (RGPD)…
• Damage to brand image, loss of customers and potential drop in sales.
• Moral impact within the company: stress, demotivation, loss of productivity…

Was your company right?

The cost of computer data loss in France

The Global Data Protection Index study funded by Dell EMC focuses on the level of data protection. The 2016 survey involved 2,200 IT decision-makers from public and private organizations worldwide, employing more than 250 people. In France, costs for the 2015-2016 period were estimated at an average of :

• 997,000 for organizations suffering data loss ($914,000 for the worldwide average).
• 488,000 for organizations experiencing a period of unplanned system downtime ($555,000 for the worldwide average).

The Ponemon Institute’s Coast of Data Breach Study looks at the cost of data breaches (i.e. the financial impact of any event in which personal, medical or financial data is compromised). The 2017 study, commissioned from IBM Security, surveyed 419 organizations in 13 countries and/or regions around the world. For France, the costs generated by a data breach were estimated at an average of :

• 3.51 million in total ($3.62 million worldwide average).
• 146 per compromised data ($141 for the world average).

The protocols applied by these studies consider the direct and indirect costs of data loss. Their results are above all generic indicators. Each company must therefore consider its specific environment in order to assess the cost of a data loss: business sector, nature of the data it processes or possesses, customer base, number of employees, infrastructure, etc.

2 June 2018