Data Loss

Data loss happens when data is destroyed, corrupted, stolen or made unavailable, so the organisation can no longer use it. The loss may be permanent: with no usable backup, the records are gone for good.

For example, a community theatre group keeps members' contact details and ticket bookings in a single database. A staff laptop holding the only copy is stolen. Nothing has been deleted, but the records are lost to the group and may now be in a thief's hands. If a power cut corrupted the database instead, the records might still exist but be unreadable — that is data loss too.

Stolen data still counts as data loss, even when a copy exists, because the organisation has lost control of who can see it. Data loss is about the data itself, not the system: a website can stay online while the records behind it are corrupted or missing. Systems being unavailable is downtime, which is a different impact.

Impact on the organisation

Data loss can lead to loss of clients. If members and ticket buyers hear that their names, addresses or card details have been lost or stolen, some will stop renewing and take their bookings elsewhere. It can also damage the organisation's public image: a story about missing customer records makes an organisation look careless, and that impression spreads quickly, so new customers choose someone else.

The two impacts are linked. Once the group no longer controls who can see its records, it also loses control of how it is seen, and rebuilding a good name takes far longer than restoring a backup.