Data-loss incidents cost S'pore firms average of US$1.4m a year: Dell EMC

DATA-LOSS incidents cost an average of US$1.4 million to Singapore organisations over a period of 12 months.

This is higher than the global average of US$939,703, according to a recent report from Dell EMC. 

Data loss had plagued 34 per cent of Singapore organisations in the last 12 months.

When it comes to disruptions and data-loss incidents, Dell EMC said the number of incidents was "notably higher" among Singapore-based organisations, with 86 per cent affected by disruptions and 37 per cent suffering from permanent data loss. For disruptions, this was higher than the global average of 76 per cent.

The cost of unplanned system downtime averaged around S$463,000 for Singapore companies, with 45 per cent having experienced unplanned system downtime in the last 12 months.

Almost all local organisations are facing at least one challenge regarding data protection, the top barrier being the inability to track and protect all data due to growth of DevOps and cloud development.

The index also noted that compliance with data privacy regulations is not among the key concerns for Singapore organisations, with regulation compliance ranking fourth. Only 28 per cent of local organisations feel "very confident" that their data protection measures are compliant with regional regulations, the survey showed.

Dell EMC's third Global Data Protection Index surveyed 2,200 IT decision-makers globally from both public and private companies with more than 250 employees across 11 industries and 18 countries, with 100 respondents coming from Singapore.

Conducted between September and November 2018, the index aimed to find out how mature respondents' data protection strategies were.