Massive tech glitches cost local firms $1.3b in 2014

8 out of 10 firms have no data protection strategy.

Unplanned downtimes brought about by faulty data protection systems cost Singapore firms a staggering $1.3b (US$1b) this year, according to the EMC Global Data Protection Systems Index.

The report revealed that 8 out of 10 firms in the country use few, if any, modern data protection methods. These firms have prolonged recovery periods after disruption and are the most likely to suffer from systems downtime and data loss.

Over five out of ten or 52% of firms have experienced unplanned systems downtime, while a massive 70% of local companies doubt that they can fully recover in the event of a disruption.

The top three causes of disruption are hardware failure, software failure, and loss of power. Disruptions cause loss of employee productivity, loss of revenue, and delay in product or service development.

Singapore is ranked fourth out of 24 countries when it comes to maturity of data protection approaches, behind top-ranked Mainland China, second seed Hong Kong, and third placer Netherlands.