As sophistication and cost of ransomware, cryptojacking,
and social engineering attacks increase, 50% of consumers
remain clueless about these online threats
London, UK - 27th March 2019 - In advance of
World
Backup Day on 31st March, Acronis today announced
that its
2019 World Backup Day Survey into the data protection habits of
users around the globe revealed that 65.1 percent of the consumers
surveyed said either they or a family member lost data as a result
of an accidental deletion, hardware failure or software problem - a
jump of 29.4 percent from last year.
Yet for the first time in its five-year history, Acronis'
World Backup Day Survey also showed that nearly all consumers
(92.7 percent) are backing up their computers - an increase of more
than 24.1 percent from last year and the single largest
year-over-year increase.
"At first glance those two findings might seem completely
incompatible - how can more data be lost if nearly everyone is
backing up," said James Slaby, Director, Cyber Protection at
Acronis. "Yet there are hints at why these numbers look this way in
the survey. People are using more devices and accessing their data
from more places than ever before, which creates more opportunities
to lose data. They might back up their laptop, but if they did not
back up the smartphone they just left in a cab, they are still
losing data."
Acronis'
2019 World Backup Day Survey targeted users in the US, UK,
Australia, Germany, Poland, Spain, France, Japan, Singapore,
Bulgaria, and Switzerland, polling consumers and, for the first
time, business users. The increasing number of
CEOs, CIOs and other executives losing their jobs as a result
of data breaches, online attacks, and IT missteps prompted Acronis
to incorporate their data concerns and practices into the
study.
The addition of business users revealed several differences in
how and why consumers and corporations protect their digital
assets.
Only 7% of Consumers Do Not Even Try to Protect Their
Data
The number of devices being used by consumers continues to
climb, with 68.9 percent of households reporting they have three or
more devices - including computers, smartphones, and tablets.
That's up 7.6 percent from 2018.
Given the amount of data used and the stories about people
losing their homes to fires and floods, as well as data losses due
to high-profile ransomware attacks and security breaches, the
increase in reported backups suggests consumers are at least trying
to protect their data. This year, only 7 percent of consumers said
they never back up, while nearly a third of last year's respondents
(31.4 percent) did not back up their personal data.
They also report valuing their data more, with 69.9 percent
reporting they would spend more than $50 to retrieve lost files,
photos, videos, etc. Last year, fewer than 15 percent would have
paid that much.
To protect their data, 62.7 percent of consumers keep it nearby,
backing up to a local external hard drive (48.1 percent) or to a
hard drive partition (14.6 percent). Only 37.4 percent are using
the cloud or a hybrid approach of cloud and local backups.
The lack of cloud adoption presents another apparent disconnect.
Consumers overwhelmingly said that having access to data is the
greatest benefit of creating backups, with a significant majority
selecting "fast, easy access to backed up data, wherever I am"
above all other features. Yet just over a third of them back up to
the cloud, which would give them the ability to retrieve files from
anywhere.
The type of data that consumers are most concerned with losing
seems to be contacts, passwords, and other personal information
(45.8 percent), followed by media files like photos, videos, music,
and games (38.1 percent).
Fewer than half of consumers are aware of the online attacks
that threaten their data, such as ransomware (46 percent),
cryptomining malware (53 percent) and the social engineering
attacks (52 percent) used to spread malware. Education on these
dangers seems to be slow, as the number of consumers who know about
ransomware only increased
4 percent since last year.
Companies Aggressively Protect Data in the Cloud
Since an hour of downtime costs an estimated $300,000 in lost
business, corporate users clearly know the value of their data. And
since CEOs and C-level executives are being held more accountable
for their data protection and security postures in the wake of a
rash of high-profile incidents, leadership is taking a more active
interest.
That helps explain why the business users who responded to
Acronis' World Backup Day Survey are already prepared to protect
their files, apps, and systems - with a significant majority citing
safety and security of their data as the benefits that are most
important to them, ranking them first and second, respectively.
The 2019 survey is the first-time companies were included in the
annual poll, and the responses came from businesses of all sizes -
including 32.7 percent small businesses with under 100 employees,
41.0 percent medium businesses with between 101 and 999 employees,
and 26.3 percent large enterprises employing 1,000 people or
more.
Regardless of the company size, the majority make protecting
their data a priority by backing up their company data monthly
(35.1 percent), weekly (24.8 percent), or daily (25.9 percent). As
a result, 68.7 percent said they did not suffer a data loss event
during the past year that resulted in downtime.
These companies were also clearly aware of the latest risks to
their data, which is why they reported being either concerned or
highly concerned about ransomware (60.6 percent), cryptojacking
(60.1 percent), and social engineering attacks (61.0 percent).
In practice, businesses of all sizes rely on cloud backups, with
48.3 percent using the cloud exclusively and 26.8 percent using a
combination of local and cloud backup.
In terms of security ("data protected against online threats and
cybercriminals"), the cloud provides a buffer that such malware
attacks have difficulty to breach.
Defending Against New Malware
As modern threats to data continue to evolve at breath-taking
speed, both individuals and companies need to look for secure data
protection solutions that provide the full range of protection -
including flexible local, hybrid, and cloud-based backups and
active anti-malware solutions.
Only Acronis backup solutions - Acronis Backup
for businesses and Acronis
True Image for personal use - include an active, artificial
intelligence-based defence against ransomware that detects and
stops ransomware in real time and automatically restores any
affected files. The technology is so effective it stopped 400,000
ransomware attacks last year.
The latest version of this integrated defence, called Acronis
Active Protection, was recently enhanced to recognize and
stop cryptomining malware as well. Added in the fall of 2018,
the updated defence
stopped tens of thousands of cryptomining attacks within the
first month it was available.
Cyber Protection Recommendations for World Backup Day
Whether you are concerned about personal files or securing your
company's business continuity, Acronis has four simple
recommendations to help protect your data:
- Always create backups of important data. Keep copies of the backup both locally (so it is available for fast, frequent recoveries) and in the cloud (to guarantee you have everything if a fire, flood, or disaster hits your facilities).
- Ensure your operating system and software are current. Relying on an outdated OS or app means it lacks the bug fixes and security patches that help block cybercriminals from gaining access to your systems.
- Beware suspicious email, links, and attachments. Most virus and ransomware infections are the result of social engineering techniques that trick unsuspecting individuals into opening infected email attachments or clicking on links to websites that host malware.
- Install anti-virus software and enable automatic updates so your system is protected against common, well-known malware strains. Windows user should confirm that their Windows Defender is turned on and up-to-date.
Find out more about how you can protect your data at https://www.acronis.com/en-us/promo/world-backup-day/
About Acronis:
Acronis is a leader in AI-native cyber protection, unifying data protection, cybersecurity, IT operations and hybrid infrastructure to deliver business continuity, security and compliance with less cost and complexity. More than 21,000 service providers trust Acronis to protect over 750,000 businesses in 150 countries. Acronis is headquartered in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. For more information, visit www.acronis.com.