Is it any wonder organizations have a hard time protecting their data, let alone knowing where it all is?
According to an IDC report from last year, “The Diverse and Exploding Digital Universe“:
- The digital universe in 2007 — at 2.25 x 1021 bits (281 exabytes or 281 billion gigabytes) — was 10% bigger than we [IDC] thought. The resizing comes as a result of faster growth in cameras, digital TV shipments, and better understanding of information replication.
- By 2011, the digital universe will be 10 times the size it was in 2006. In 2011, the amount of digital information produced in the year should
- equal nearly 1,800 exabytes, or 10 times that produced in 2006.
- Avogadro’s number — the number of carbon atoms in 12 gramsii — is 602,200,000,000,000,000,000,000, or 6.022 x 1023. And no, the digital universe is not that big. In 2007, the number of “atoms” in the digital universe — the digital bits, or binary 1s and 0s created, captured, and replicated during the year — was less than a hundredth of Avogadro’s number. But the number of digital “atoms” in the digital universe is already bigger than the number of stars in the universe. And, because the digital universe is expanding by a factor of 10 every five years, in 15 years it will surpass Avogadro’s number.
Tags: awareness and training, data, Information Security, IT compliance, IT training, policies and procedures, privacy training, risk management, security training