Where is Data Lost Most Often Happening?

In a time where cyberspace is almost as prominent as its physical counterpart, data is king. There are trillions of gigabytes of data stored across the internet. Inevitably then, some of that data will be lost. This can mean stolen, destroyed, anything as long as it’s not where it’s meant to be.

 

Unsurprisingly, this occurs mostly within the United States. In fact almost 65% of data loss occurs in the U.S. Naturally this statistic makes a lot more sense when one looks at the state statistics. California alone makes up 5.6 billion of the 6.2 billion the U.S has lost. Silicon Valley and other prominent tech startups have made it a golden zone for data loss.

 

Yet the scariest data breaches are those that occur within industry. Finance, for example, is the top industry for data loss. This is only natural as there’s the most to gain from stealing financial files. Following finance is healthcare, public administration, manufacturing and transportation. 

 

Most of these losses are breaches of privacy, customer data is stolen, or given away for a high price. Ultimately though human error is the biggest cause of data loss. Most lost data is relatively insignificant, yet the biggest singular breaches are almost always with intent. Ultimately as long as there is data there is data to lose. The question is exactly where and how that will happen throughout history.