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The term "bit rot" refers to the gradual deterioration of digital storage media that leads to data loss. This phenomenon describes situations where a file's integrity issues arise over time, potentially due to hardware malfunctions, environmental factors, or media degradation. As digital storage devices age, they can develop problems such as corrupted sectors or lost data bits, which can render previously accessible information unreadable or unusable.

Understanding bit rot is crucial for digital preservation, as it highlights the need for regular data maintenance, redundant backups, and migration strategies to ensure that information remains retrievable over time. Preventative measures against bit rot may include checksum verification, regular data integrity checks, and the migration of data to new storage media or formats before deterioration occurs.