Majority of Organizations Uncertain They Can Recover from a Ransomware Attack, Says Report

The Dell Technologies 2021 Global Data Protection Index (GDPI) findings reveal organizations are facing several data protection challenges driven by the constant threat of ransomware and the consumption of emerging technologies such as cloud-native applications, Kubernetes containers, and artificial intelligence.

According to a recent IDC survey, more than one-third of organizations worldwide have experienced a ransomware attack or breach that blocked access to systems or data in the previous 12 months[i]. To help address these rising – and seemingly inevitable – issues, Dell Technologies is introducing new software and services to accelerate virtual machine (VM) backup data availability, simplify management of large data sets, and maintain business continuity while alleviating dependencies on day-to-day cyber recovery operations.

“As we move further in the data era, the amount of data being generated will continue to increase due to various factors such as continuation of remote working culture, higher adoption of emerging technologies etc. The Dell Technologies 2021 Global Data Protection Index corroborates this, and highlights how organizations globally are managing more than 10 times the amount of data, as compared to five years ago”, said Ripu Bajwa, director & general manager, Data Protection Solutions, Dell Technologies India. “We understand these challenging times and the hurdles businesses are experiencing in securing data. Hence, to address the evolving IT and security demands of our customers, we are offering industry’s most comprehensive solutions for cyber resiliency, at the edge, the core and the cloud environments. We are constantly working with our customers to understand their security challenges, and are offering them the required data security solutions to reduce business risk and ensure flawless business continuity.”

“Our newly launched Dell Technologies 2021 GDPI findings indicate that over two-thirds of the respondents from Asia Pacific and Japan are concerned that their organizations’ existing data protection measures may not be sufficient to cope with malware and ransomware threats,” said Lucas Salter, general manager, Data Protection Solutions, Dell Technologies, Asia Pacific & Japan. “In this age of increasing cyber threats, we understand that the stakes have never been higher and protecting data has never been more complex. We have been working with our customers across the region to address this growing challenge by adopting a holistic cybersecurity and data protection strategy to reduce risk and ensure resilience in the event of a ransomware or other cyberattack.”

New GDPI findings reveal increased state of complexity around data protection
The 2021 Dell Technologies GDPI survey of 1,000 global IT decision makers of which 250 are from APJ (Australia, India, Japan, Singapore, and South Korea) shows organizations are combatting continued data growth and increased data protection complexities. The study found that globally organizations are managing more than 10 times the amount of data than they did five years ago – from 1.45 petabytes in 2016 to 14.6 petabytes in 2021. Additionally, 68%  of respondents in India (Global: 82%, APJ: 82%) are concerned their organization’s existing data protection solutions won’t be able to meet all future business challenges. These concerns are well-founded, with 26% (Global: 33%, APJ: 38%) reporting data loss in the last year and 34% (Global: 45 %, APJ: 42%), experiencing unplanned system downtime.

GDPI findings include:

• 66% of respondents in India (Global: 62%, APJ: 68%) are concerned their existing data protection measures may not be sufficient to cope with malware and ransomware threats, while 74% (Global: 74%, APJ: 72%) agree they have increased exposure to data loss from cyber threats with the growth of employees working from home.
• 42% of respondents in India (Global: 67%, APJ: 67%), lack confidence that all their business-critical data can be recovered in the event of a destructive cyberattack or data loss.
• 70% of respondents in India (Global: 63%, APJ: 64%) believe emerging technologies—such as cloud-native applications, Kubernetes containers, artificial intelligence and machine learning pose a risk to data protection, and the lack of data protection solutions for newer technologies was one of the top three data protection challenges for organizations.
• On average, globally, the cost of data loss in the last 12 months is approaching four times higher for organizations using multiple data protection vendors as compared to those using a single-vendor approach.