Intelligent CIO North America Issue 24 | Page 82

FINAL WORD

Paying cybercriminals to restore data is not a data protection strategy

Following the publication of Veeam ’ s 2022 Ransomware Trends Report , Danny Allan , CTO at Veeam , tells us that paying cybercriminals to restore data is not a data protection or recovery strategy .

Businesses are losing the battle when it comes to defending against ransomware attacks , according to the Veeam 2022 Ransomware Trends Report . This revealed that 72 % of organizations had partial or complete attacks on their backup repositories , dramatically impacting the ability to recover data without paying the ransom .

Danny Allan , CTO at Veeam
Veeam Software , a leader in backup , recovery and data management solutions that deliver Modern Data Protection , found that 80 % of successful attacks targeted known vulnerabilities – reinforcing the importance of patching and upgrading software . Almost all attackers attempted to destroy backup repositories to disable the victim ’ s ability to recover without paying the ransom .
“ Ransomware has democratized data theft and requires a collaborative doubling down from organizations across every industry to maximize their ability to remediate and recover without paying the ransom ,” said California-based Danny Allan , CTO at Veeam .
“ Paying cybercriminals to restore data is not a data protection strategy . There is no guarantee of recovering data , the risks of reputational damage and loss of customer confidence are high , and most importantly , this feeds a self-fulfilling prophecy that rewards criminal activity .”
82 INTELLIGENTCIO NORTH AMERICA www . intelligentcio . com