Only 31% of personal users and 36% of IT professionals back up to the cloud
Technology giant Acronis revealed its 2020 Cyber Protection Week Survey on March 30, to inaugurate the observation of World Cyber Protection Week (March 30 to April 3). The survey was completed by nearly 3000 respondents from 11 countries across the world, and gauges the data protection habits of individual and corporate users.
In 2011, a group of Reddit users marked March 31 as World Backup Day to serve as a reminder for everyone to create secure backups for all important photos, documents and other data. This year, owing to the increasing complexity, security concerns, and costs associated with protecting data, Acronis expanded the informal recognition day to World Cyber Protection Week.
According to market intelligence firm International Data Corporation, cyber protection, unlike the more well-known term cybersecurity, combines cyber protection with backup and security.
Some of the key findings of the survey include:
- 28% of enterprises said they back up files weekly, while 20% back up data monthly.
- 26% of organizations report backing up data daily with only 15% backing up multiple times in a day.
- 10% of organizations do not back up data.
- 42% of organisations reported downtime due to data loss.
- Although 91% of individuals back up data at least once a year, 68% of people report losing data due to accidental deletion, hardware or software failure, or an out-of-date backup.
- Only 17% of personal users and 20% of IT professionals employ hybrid backups with backups on local media and cloud.
According to the survey, these findings emphasize the importance of implementing a cyber protection strategy that includes backing up data multiple times a day and practicing Acronis’ 3-2-1 backup rule. This rule dictates that all data should have 3 copies, with 2 copies stored in local storage devices and 1 copy stored on the cloud.
With the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, there was a spurt in cyber scams in Asia in the past two weeks, according to the Deloitte ‘Cyber Smart: Enabling APAC Businesses Report’. Under these circumstances, the Cyber Protection Week survey shows that traditional backup systems are not enough for total cyber protection.
The survey gauges the extent of cyber attack threats.
- 88% of IT professionals are concerned with ransomware, while 86% and 87% of IT professionals are concerned about cryptojacking and social engineering attacks like phishing, respectively.
- 30% of personal users and 12% of IT professionals would not know if their data was modified unexpectedly.
- 30% of personal users and 13% of IT professionals are not sure if their anti-malware solution stops zero-day threats.
According to the Deloitte report, 3 out of five businesses in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region have put off digitalization out of fear of cyberattacks. Vietnam experiences the highest frequency of cyberattacks, followed by Thailand. Singapore has the highest cybersecurity risk in the APAC region and is also the most prepared to deal with it.
