New Survey Reveals Few Organizations Are Taking Extra Measures for Their Backup Copies

The Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) recently conducted a survey interviewing 620 IT and cybersecurity professionals working on the ransomware protection process at mid-sized and large companies in North America and Europe. In response to this survey, it was discovered that even today only 49% of respondents are taking care of their backup copies with extra measures.

The research called “The Long Road Ahead to Ransomware Preparedness”, had the intention to:

- Understand the proactive and reactive measures that organizations have in place to defend against the ransomware threat;
- Segment the levels of ransomware readiness for all major phases of defense;
- Examine the state of ransomware mitigation best practices in the readiness, prevention, response, and recovery phases;
- And identify priorities and plans associated with mitigating the ransomware threat over the next 12-18 months.

Backup is still the safest and most used method for ransomware recovery and prevention. It tops the list of methodologies organizations would use if they fell victim to a successful ransomware attack. 39% of people interviewed revealed that they choose the public cloud as the storage destination for their backups, and 47% responded that they use a hybrid system.

Despite being a useful form of storage, it is not always sufficient. Air-gapping is an almost mandatory technology when it comes to taking extra protective measures. This practice is recommended and proven, allowing backup or recovery copies to be physically and logically separated from the rest of the network.

However, only 30% of organizations said they have deployed this type of solution today, offering many opportunities for cybercriminals. This demonstrates how much maturity the market needs to acquire solutions such as air-gapping to mitigate the substantial risks associated with backup/recovery data.

Read more about the research in Pure Storage's summary on this blog post and learn how you can change the way you protect yourself from ransomware attacks in your organization.