Why do so many underestimate such risks ? A 2019 YouGov survey indicated that 66 % of companies with fewer than 500 employees didn ’ t believe they would fall victim to a cyberattack , and that just 9 % of businesses surveyed ranked cybersecurity as their top business priority . Such stats clearly demonstrate that there ’ s an education gap that needs to be filled across industries to elevate the importance of this issue .

The fact that the enterprise doesn ’ t perceive the risk of ransomware to be a priority is at odds with the amount of damage that ransomware is doing to businesses . In the UK , nearly 60 % of companies struck by ransomware end up paying their attackers , with the average ransomware payout being US $ 84,116 in Q4 2019 .

Payouts are just the tip of the iceberg . As ransomware locks users and organisations out of their data , business operations can quickly be shut down for days or weeks , which could risk the

DAVID FRIEND , FOUNDER AND CEO , WASABI livelihoods of many . When you look at the damage done to regular business activity by way of ransomware , it ’ s easy to see why companies are tempted to pay up – in 2020 , IBM estimated that downtime from data breaches cost the average company US $ 1.52 million worth of lost business and before the pandemic , the total cost to business operations inflicted by ransomware attacks globally was projected to be US $ 11 billion .

In the end , computers and other hardware can be replaced , but in the vast majority of cases , lost data represents the product of countless man-hours of work , which cannot be replaced without huge expense . If enterprises want to offset this risk , they must first and foremost develop a rigorous data backup strategy that diversifies where they store their data to spread risk . Backups are a vital part of any organisation ’ s IT strategy and ensuring multiple redundant backups are available helps to reinforce organisational resilience to cyberthreats .

At a minimum , IT decision-makers should be keeping three different backup copies of the same data , with two on different media formats and with one of those kept off-site – what the storage industry calls the 3-2-1 rule . Keeping a backup off-site is key as it allows organisations to ‘ air-gap ’ backups from one another , enabling greater data protection and security through physical distancing .

A hybrid cloud strategy can also be of huge benefit when tackling cyberthreats . By combining an on-site dedicated storage system for local backup and setting it up to synchronise with a cloud backup service on a regular basis , data continuity is maintained and the risk of disruption knocking out all sources is significantly decreased . It ’ s also a good idea to have your data stored in different vendors ’ systems so that hacks or even software bugs in one system don ’ t risk data loss globally too . www . intelligentciso . com

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