Ransomware Study: 4 out of 5 Organizations Targeted Within The Past 12 Months

OwnBackup, the leading SaaS data protection platform, announced the findings of a global survey conducted by Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) that reveals a staggering 79% of respondent organizations have been targeted by ransomware within the past 12 months. Of those organizations, nearly three quarters said the attack was successful, meaning that it disrupted business operations.

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Other key findings include:

• Of the respondents that said their organization paid a cyber ransom to regain access to data, applications, and/or systems after an attack, only 14% were able to recover all of their data.
• 87% of respondents who made ransom payments said that they experienced additional extortion attempts beyond the initial ransomware demand
• 31% of respondent organizations targeted by ransomware indicated that application user and permission misconfigurations were the initial point of compromise
• 87% of respondents are very or somewhat concerned about their backups being infected by ransomware attacks

“While data backups are essential for ensuring business continuity in the event of a successful ransomware attack, their value makes them prime targets of ransomware infection themselves,” said Sam Gutmann, CEO of OwnBackup. “By storing backups outside of production on an independent platform, companies can not only keep them safe from a potentially devastating cyberattack, but also avoid having to pay a ransom to get their data back. It’s also important to remember that data security is a team sport, and that IT, InfoSec, CISOs and others must work in unison to truly prevent attacks.”

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“Our hope is that this study connects the dots between those organizations that feel most prepared to deal with a ransomware attack and the specific strategies they are using to get there, in order to help others do the same.”

In addition to providing both Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics 365 customers with an off-platform, automated backup and recovery solution, OwnBackup also helps companies strengthen the security controls that are often a point of compromise for ransomware attacks. They acquired RevCult, a SaaS Security Poster Management (SSPM) provider in August of 2021, and are expected to announce a new security product in the coming weeks.

“This research further reveals the prevalence of ransomware and just how difficult it is for organizations to fully manage the threat,” said Christophe Bertrand, Practice Director at ESG. “Our hope is that this study connects the dots between those organizations that feel most prepared to deal with a ransomware attack and the specific strategies they are using to get there, in order to help others do the same.”

To gather data for this report, ESG conducted a comprehensive online survey of IT and cybersecurity professionals from private- and public-sector organizations in North America and Western Europe between December 21, 2021 and January 10, 2022. To qualify for this survey, respondents were required to be IT or cybersecurity professionals personally involved with the technology and processes associated with protecting against ransomware attacks.

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