bit loss

n. ~ The corruption of the lowest level of information digital data in transmission or during storage.

Notes: 

Bit loss indicates that information at the smallest level has changed or become erratic. Within character data, the change of a single bit may be significant; changing the middle bit in A (1000001) to alters it to I (1001001). Such a change in a binary executable file may make it impossible for the program to run or to authenticate a bitstream using a digital signature. However, such a change in an image or sound file may result in only a minor amount of noise.