editor ’ s question
HOW IMPORTANT IS EFFECTIVE BACKUP FOR
ENSURING DATA SECURITY ?
? cronis , a global
A leader in cyber protection , has released its annual Cyber Protection Week Global Report 2022 . The report which surveyed over 6,200 IT users and IT managers from small businesses to enterprises across 22 countries – including the United Arab Emirates ( UAE ) – exposes some of the most critical shortcomings appearing in cyber protection practices today , examines why they ’ re appearing and offers guidance on how they can be fixed .
One of the key findings last year was that 80 % of organisations ran as many as 10 solutions simultaneously for data protection and cybersecurity – yet more than half of them suffered downtime because of data loss . According to the report findings , the UAE performed dismally with 18 % of the organisations claiming to use between 11 – 15 different solutions , while a further 8 % of companies use over 15 solutions simultaneously . Clearly , more solutions do not translate into more protection .
This year , we see that trend getting worse : while 78 % of organisations globally run as many as 10 different solutions , 76 % of organisations experienced downtime due to data loss – a 25 % increase from 2021 . This downtime stemmed from a number of sources , including system crashes
( 52 %), human error ( 42 %), cyberattacks ( 36 %) and insider attacks ( 20 %).
As a result , 61 % of global organisations ’ IT teams now report a preference for integrated solutions that replace their complicated stacks of cybersecurity and data protection tools with a single , unified console .
“ As the entire world is increasingly at risk from different types of attacks , accelerating to universal all-in-one solutions is the only way to achieve truly complete cyber protection . And that ’ s precisely the problem Acronis has set out to solve ,” said Candid Wuest , Acronis VP of Cyber Protection Research . “ Attackers don ’ t discriminate when it comes to means or targets , so strong and reliable security is no longer an option , it ’ s a necessity .”
Overconfidence as a trend : IT teams are overselling their readiness
The report also unearthed another worrying trend that is responsible for cyberdefences lowering and increasing IT security budgets :
• 71 % and 70 % of Saudi Arabia and the UAE companies respectively are looking to replace their complicated stacks of cybersecurity and data protection tools with a single , unified console .
• 70 % of organisations ’ IT managers claim to have automated patch management . However , based on any reliable industry research , only a handful of companies follow the 72-hour ‘ golden time ’ for patch management .
• 82 % also claim to have ransomware protection and remediation , yet successful attacks occur weekly and the size of ransom demands grows each year .
• 20 % claimed to be testing backup restoration weekly . Again , not consistent with any other industryissued data .
It seems that IT managers are trying to appear better prepared than they are ; but that is , in turn , misleading their managers , boards of directors , industry analysts and customers .
However , if the overwhelming majority of IT managers indeed have these solutions , they aren ’ t using them right : they have simply stocked their IT stacks with all of the recommended cybersecurity technologies – spending more money in vain .
The report findings prove that organisations are spending more on IT security this year , but when compared to their overall IT budget , it becomes clear – organisations are still treating cyber protection as a ‘ nice-to-have ’, not as a ‘ must-have ’. www . intelligentciso . com
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