Despite the advancements in security technology, nearly four in 10 (39 per cent) IT and security decision-makers share their organisations have fallen victim to ransomware attacks in the last six months, according to new research from data and security management firm, Cohesity.
It is no secret that as organisations have advanced their technologies to combat cybercrime, criminals have been doing the same. In fact, the Cohesity survey which spoke to over 3,400 IT and security decision-makers highlights this as 91 per cent believe the threat of ransomware attacks has increased this past year. Worryingly, despite 85 per cent of organisations having a resilience strategy in place, 53 per cent aren’t confident in it. Meanwhile, less than half of those remaining (23 per cent) are confident in their strategy.
Reasons for a lack of confidence vary between the respondents. Forty-two per cent identified teams being stretched too thin as the primary concern, while 38 per cent said leadership is not aware of the importance of a strong cyber plan. This can explain why organisations are still failing to invest sufficiently in skilled talent and solutions. Seven in 10 respondents believe they currently lack enough skilled workers to respond effectively to a data breach or loss.
“A cyber resiliency strategy that prioritises the ability to recover from a cyber-attack is arguably more important than one that focuses solely on prevention,” said James Blake, CISO EMEA at Cohesity. “But all the time that companies try to pay their way out of trouble with ransoms, insurance or warranties is throwing money in the wrong direction as this won’t help them recover the data and processes that keep the organisation in business.
“The gaps aren’t in prevention or even in the workforce, the gaps that need bridging are in the c-suite taking the threats seriously and investing in tools to rapidly recover from attacks.”
Data recovery capabilities
Despite these concerns, 95 per cent are confident they can recover data and critical business processes in the event of a data breach or loss. However, 68 per cent said it will be touch and go or they have limited confidence. About a third (37 per cent) cited a lack of coordination between IT and security teams as the biggest barrier to getting the organisation back up and running.
A similar number (31 per cent) said that lack of a recent clean and immutable copy of data would be their biggest hurdle. Fifty-two per cent of respondents believe they would recover data and business processes in under a week (one to six days) and three per cent believe they could do it in under 24 hours.
Ransoms and insurance payouts
However, the research indicates that organisations are willing to pay to compensate for some of the gaps in their cyber resiliency. Of those surveyed, only nine per cent ruled out paying a ransom to recover their data after an attack. Twenty-nine per cent would definitely pay and 62 per cent would consider it depending on the severity of the attack and cost of ransom.
Likewise, 80 per cent believe that they would be covered by ransomware warranties, contrary to Cohesity’s own investigation of the terms and conditions of many warranties. Similarly, 73 per cent of those surveyed said their organisation has cyber-insurance. Reflecting the industry challenges, almost half (48 per cent) said it was harder to get insurance now than three years ago.
“IT and SecOps must co-own organisations’ cyber resilience outcomes to identify sensitive data and protect, detect, respond, and recover from cyberattacks,” said Brian Spanswick, CISO, Cohesity. “Relying on traditional backup and recovery systems, which lack modern data security capabilities, in today’s sophisticated cyber threat landscape is a recipe for disaster.
“Instead, organisations should seek out data security and management platforms that integrate with their existing cybersecurity solutions and provide visibility into their security posture and improve cyber resilience.”
Francis Bignell
