The risk of ransomware increases. Successful attacks not only endanger business processes and sensitive data, but also sales and reputation. Often it is only a matter of time before an attack breaks all protective measures. Every business needs a reliable way to recover from a successful ransomware attack.
According to the study "Forrester's Guide To Paying Ransomware", ransomware attacks quintupled within a year. But only 21 percent of companies have a contingency plan for data recovery after a ransomware attack. This was the result of the recently published study "Forrester Opportunity Snapshot: Ransomware Recoverability", which was commissioned by Cohesity.
Alarmingly rapid growth
The longer the process takes, the less data can be saved. Only 11 percent of companies were able to restore the affected data and applications within three days of a ransomware attack. For 97 percent, the recovery process takes up to two weeks. And only 58 percent of the data can be retrieved on average.
The consequences are devastating. More than half of the respondents report a loss of trust among customers and 43 percent report reduced sales due to downtime business processes. Therefore, 9 out of 10 participants say that responding to ransomware attacks is a top priority.
"Ransomware attacks are so prevalent that they're part of our collective consciousness," said Brian Spanswick, chief information and security officer at Cohesity. "And our research also shows that companies who pay ransom risk losing consumer confidence and leading them to do business elsewhere."
Three hurdles to rapid recovery
In practice, however, three areas hinder rapid recovery processes.
- People: 50 percent say unclear responsibilities and poor communication slow response times to ransomware attacks.
- processes: 50 percent believe that their backup and recovery processes are too rigid and do not allow time-critical adjustments.
- Technologies: 54 percent named fragmented and poorly secured backups as the greatest technological challenge for recovery.
The two-part infographic here provides further information on the subject of ransomware recovery and the results of the survey.
The report Forrester Opportunity Snapshot: Ransomware Recoverability is also available for free download.
More at Cohesity.com