Is Your Business Ready for Ransomware Attacks? Global Study Highlights Data Security Gaps and Rising Costs

At Arcserve, we’re committed to keeping our finger on the pulse of our customers so we can address the challenges that matter most to them. Our annual global research study is one way we do so as we delve into recent experiences and attitudes of IT decision-makers (ITDMs) regarding data protection and disaster recovery.

The most glaring—if not unexpected—finding from the research is that ransomware attacks continue to impact organizations worldwide. And the costs are high. But most are woefully unprepared, even though ransomware attacks targeted 50 percent of respondents.

Findings Make a Case for Data Protection Investments

While some organizations may blame their lack of ransomware attack prevention measures on costs, the reality is that one successful attack can make that crucial technology pay for itself. The study makes that plain, with 35 percent of respondents reporting that their organizations were asked to pay more than $100,000 in ransom payments—and 20 percent faced ransom demands of between $1 and $10 million!

But less than a quarter of respondents (23 percent) said they are very confident in their ability to recover lost data in the event of a ransomware attack. Turn that around, and 77 percent aren’t confident they can recover their data. That’s not good, but it’s even worse for small businesses, of which only 20 percent are very confident in their ability to recover lost data in a ransomware attack.

More organizations need to make the investments necessary to protect their data. ITDMs already recognize that, with 92 percent of respondents saying they are making additional investments to protect against ransomware attacks. Here’s where the study found the respondents are making technology investments :

• Security software: 64 percent
• Training and certifications: 50 percent
• Managed services: 43 percent

Robust Disaster Recovery Strategy and Backups are Crucial

More than half of the ITDMs surveyed (58 percent) said they rely on existing backups to restore operations as quickly as possible if a ransomware attack occurs. But only 35 percent of those surveyed said they have data backup and recovery in place for all remote employees. That presents another vulnerability to ransomware, especially in today’s workforce world of remote and hybrid work.

These data points make a case for effective ransomware defense. That should include strong data protections, a proper backup, and disaster recovery plan, and the technology solutions to ensure your plan works if needed. Your plans should include a 3-2-1-1 backup strategy that uses immutable storage to ensure that, even if ransomware does get into your systems, you can recover all of your data and get back up and running as defined by your RTO and RPO.  

One interesting survey finding was that 81 percent of these ITDMs want governments to do more to help companies protect against ransomware while acknowledging the limitations governments face.

"As our annual survey confirmed, ransomware attacks continue to significantly disrupt business worldwide with staggering costs and the real threat of losing mission-critical data,” said Florian Malecki, executive vice president of marketing at Arcserve. “IT decision-makers must review and modernize their IT security infrastructure by making data backup and recovery and immutable storage a cornerstone of their data resilience strategy to strengthen the entire environment. Arcserve focuses on helping our customers achieve true data resilience with a Unified Data Protection approach of impenetrable and immutable best-in-class data protection solutions for data centers, cloud, and hybrid environments."

To learn more about Arcserve data protection solutions, talk to an Arcserve technology partner. And check out our on-demand demos for a personalized demonstration of our products.