Acronis: several-hour operational outage is the most common consequence of data loss in Czech companies

86% of respondents consider backups to be a key element of data loss prevention

PRAGUE, October 18, 2022 – Acronis, a global leader in cyber protection solutions, presented the results of a local survey, according to which as many as 43% of Czech businesses have experienced a several-hour interruption of business operations as a result of corporate data loss.  Longer operational outages, exceptionally even threatening the company’s very existence, were reported by 5% of respondents.  The survey was conducted in October 2022 among attendees of the ZEBRA Cyber Roadshow conference.

Although most corporate data losses are still caused by human factors or device failures, the number of losses resulting from cyberattacks is growing—for example, 14% of respondents cited a ransomware attack as the cause of loss. Regular backups remain a key element of data protection in Czech organizations, but the importance of cybersecurity and protection of backups themselves is increasing significantly, as backups are becoming an increasingly frequent target of cyberattackers.

The most interesting survey findings include:

• In the event of data loss, Czech IT administrators most often encounter accidental deletion
  (85%), device failure (61%), and ransomware encryption (14%).
• 43% of respondents stated that the typical consequence of data loss is a short-term interruption of business operations lasting hours, 29% reported an IT outage with no impact on company operations, and 23% reported no outage thanks to the existence of an instant data recovery system. Only 4% of respondents mentioned a long-term outage lasting days, and 1% an outage threatening the company’s very existence.
• Key elements of data loss prevention are backups (86% of respondents), cybersecurity (68%), backup protection (51%), and recovery testing (46%).
• Only 26% of companies today use exclusively on-premise cyber protection solutions; the rest already use hybrid and cloud solutions.

“Based on our recent experience, we can confirm that the number of cases in which customers and partners face attacks leading to business operational outages is growing,” said Aleš Hok, Sales Director at ZEBRA SYSTEMS. “These attacks are usually aimed directly at backups because they represent the main obstacle to successful extortion for attackers. We therefore recommend that businesses and organizations use comprehensive data protection and cybersecurity solutions that, alongside traditional backups, can ensure the security of the entire infrastructure, including the protection of critical backups.”