As 2024 is ending, we have an impressive list of massive data loss news that made waves this year. To name a few, there were two massive AT&T data breaches of a million-dollar user database and a series of data thefts from cloud data giant Snowflake.
Suppose such outrageous data breaches happen to big corporations with a robust data security infrastructure. In that case, it hurts to imagine the data loss threats for average tech users, who only in 2022, lost nearly $8.8 billion to digital fraud.
Handy Recovery Advisor has surveyed 1,000 U.S. nationals on their data backup and loss prevention habits. The results reveal that users are growing aware of the importance of data safety. Yet, there are still significant gaps in understanding the nuances of data loss prevention, backup techniques, and recovery tools, which significantly undermine personal data putting the loss at risk.
- While 78% of respondents claim to back up their data, only 33% do so regularly.
- 63% of respondents cannot tell the difference between data syncing and data backup.
- More than half of users only back up their most important data, such as financial information and password credentials.
- About 50% of cloud users do not use physical backups.
Survey Findings
1. Digital cloud is the data storage of choice for 55%
According to our survey, nearly 55% of respondents rely on the digital cloud as the primary data storage choice. Other popular options include internal computer storage (20%), USB flash drives (7%), and SD cards (7%). About 5% of respondents, primarily Gen X representatives, prefer to store their data in physical copies or printed documents.
Paradoxically, the more storage options we have, the higher the risk of accidental data loss. Andrey Vasilyev, comments on the link between the variety of storage options and growing risks:
The volume of storage devices has surged dramatically. From car video recorders to large data centers, the increase in storage equipment reflects growing data needs. As more businesses and individuals generate and store large volumes of data, the likelihood of data loss due to hardware failure, human error, or cyber incidents increases.
2. Half of users do not use physical backups for data saved in cloud storage
With the digital cloud being the most popular data storage option, about 50% of respondents do not use physical backups for the data therein.
Though it’s tempting to think that keeping one’s data digitally is reliable enough, this omission makes one’s data vulnerable to cyber attacks, ransomware, and data leaks.
In the first eight months of 2023 alone, over 360 million people were victims of corporate and institutional data breaches in cloud storage, and one in four people in the US had their health data exposed in a data breach.
This story vividly shows the main weaknesses of data clouds – high dependence on external factors like the provider’s reliability, internet connection, local disaster frequency, etc.
Even the leading cloud providers are not safe from ransomware attacks. Take Microsoft Azure, for example. In 2022, it was found to have underlying vulnerabilities in its security infrastructure, highlighting the need for robust cloud security practices.
3. 78% of users back up their data
Our survey revealed that about 78% of digital users back up their data. While this number might look encouraging, further statistics reveal that only 33% of users back up their data regularly, 27% do it a few times a year, and almost 20% do it rarely.
Noteworthy, is that among the users reporting to back up regularly, Mac users take up 41%, and Windows users – 32%. As for the mobile operating system users, 36% of iOS and 34% of Android owners back up data regularly.
4. 48% of respondents back up all of their data, regardless of sensitivity
The survey showed that almost half of the respondents back up all their data regardless of its sensitivity. This means those users do not differentiate between financial documents and family photos, treating them equally as valuable.
Still, 52% of respondents prefer to back up data selectively, either depending on the importance of the information or its relevance at the time.
5. 21% would rather save their financial data than work-related documents
As indicated above, half of users back up data indiscriminately—without distinguishing between sensitive and non-sensitive information.
However, about 21% of respondents admitted they would primarily back up financial data, while about 19% would prioritize safeguarding passwords and login information. The third priority was given to legal documents (18%) medical records (17%) and personal photos (15%), while work-related documents garnered fewer responses (9%). An estimated 3% do not think any data requires special protection.
6. 68% of respondents who have lost data now back up regularly
One of the most surprising (or not that much) revelations of the survey was that the majority of respondents backing up their data regularly, about 68% have experienced data loss due to various reasons, with lack of back being the primary reason. At the same time, the survey showed that 77% of respondents have experienced data loss with accidental file deletion (17%) and device failure (15%) being the most common reasons.
7. The lack of backup tops among data loss reasons
When asked about the most frequent data loss circumstances, 34% of respondents named accidental deletion and lack of data backup. The second place among the data loss triggers is credited to device failure and hardware malfunction (30%). Here are other reasons for data loss and tips on how to safeguard your information
- Physical Damage to a Device (11.20%)
- Power Outages or Sudden Shutdowns During File Editing (7.89%)
- File Corruption Due to Virus or Malware Attacks (7.89%)
- Lost Access to Cloud Storage or Online Accounts (6.17%)
- Accidentally Overwriting Files with New Versions (5.67%)
- Lost Data Due to Software Updates or System Resets (8.14%)
- Accidental Formatting of a Drive or Storage Device (3.75%)
- Interruption During Data Transfer to a New Device (3.35%)
8. Most Users Use Physical Drives to Back Up Their Data
We asked the users who claim to back up their data about their backup drive of choice. We found that while the digital cloud is a preferable backup option for 42% of respondents, physical drives, like hard drives (HDD), solid-state drives (SSD), USB, and SD cards take the lead with almost 60% opting for them.
9. 62% prefer not to encrypt their external drives
The survey showed that external hard drives (HDD and SSD) are the second most popular data storage after the cloud. That said, about 62% of users opt not to encrypt their external drives for extra security, which increases the probability of unauthorized access, breaches, and other threats.
10. 63% of respondents think syncing data with cloud storage means it’s fully backed up
While 78% of users claim to back up their data, the survey showed about 63% do not know the difference between “data syncing” and “data backup”. Moreover, the research shows that 32% of those agreeing regard themselves as tech pros.
Data syncing stands for the process of matching data at different locations on a system or multiple systems. In turn, cloud backup involves creating copies of data to have available in case of system failure.
Thus, synced data may not always be recoverable during accidental deletion or server errors. True backups involve creating separate copies that aren’t automatically altered or removed when changes occur on the primary device.
11. 37% of users prefer to save sensitive information on physical drives
When asked about storing sensitive information, the highest number of users would opt for physical storage. However, the cloud does not lag completely behind, with almost 35% trusting their most important data to digital drives. That said, almost 28% said they trust both digital and physical drives equally.
12. 45% of Mac users have experienced problems when trying to back up their data
An interesting fact discovered during the survey is that Mac users, despite being the most disciplined at backing up their data, are the ones finding it difficult, with 45% reporting having experienced problems. As for Windows users, they have faced backup difficulties in 32% of cases. Turning to mobile users, the backup trouble frequency is almost equal – 35% for both.
Survey’s Methodology
Handy Recovery Advisor collected its statistics via a survey launched on the PollFish platform on October 29, 2024. The pool of respondents included 1000 US nationals located in different US states and age groups (from 18 to 75), with millennials and Gen X prevailing. The survey participants are primarily tech-skilled, with 83% regarding themselves as Intermediate or Advanced users.
This article was written by Andrii Yasko, a Content Strategist at Handy Recovery Advisor.
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