The 2014 Data Loss Survey: Over 50% of companies have lost data in the last 12 months

IDG Connect and Cibecs, industry leader in endpoint data protection, have released the 2014 Data Loss Survey Results, uncovering the developments and challenges around business data management and endpoint data protection.

The survey uncovers a multitude of significant areas around how companies are protecting their data, and the most prominent data security challenges facing business IT in 2014.

One of the defining results in this year's survey was the increase in mobile workers from 2012's 60% of professionals using laptops as their primary device up to 80% in 2014.

This steadily increasing number of mobile workers means more mobile data, resulting in IT needing to look for endpoint-focused data protection, automating laptop backups and reducing the overhead costs when backing up mobile workers.

Cloud Backup still comes with huge security concerns for companies, with 50% of participants stating that their biggest concern regarding storing data in the cloud is unauthorised access to user files.

Almost a quarter of participants (24%) stated that their biggest concern around cloud data backup is increased bandwidth costs, making this another prevalent business consideration when looking at employing a cloud backup solution.

It is evident that there's still a critical gap in end user backup, with 50% of companies surveyed having lost data in the last 12 months, and only 17% of respondents claiming to have an automated backup solution for desktops and notebooks in place.

This ineffective data protection leaves these companies at massive risk, and further results in Corporate Governance non-compliance, meaning costly data loss disasters. Required compliance to regulations including POPI and SOX makes employing effective business data protection a tangible requirement for businesses.

To get the full results & analysis, Download the 2014 Data Loss Survey White Paper