Next in a series on ransomware trends, let’s look closer at where cybersecurity and IT backup teams are aligned when it comes to risk management planning, strategy and budget spend. These trends were part of the latest independent research study, the 2023 Ransomware Trends Report, that was released by Veeam in May 2023. The main topics on risk management and organization alignment are:
- What key elements are driving the organizations’ ransomware response playbook?
- How are risk management plans working?
- Are cybersecurity and IT backup teams aligned in relation to risk management?
- How are 2023 budgets changing in relation to cyber resiliency and IT spend?
Respondents agreed that the groundwork involved in preparing for when, not if, a cyberattack takes place is dependent on having good backup in their incident response playbook. But, based on key findings from the 2023 Data Protection Trends Report, only 35% of organizations have a working risk management plan. Nearly two-thirds (60%) of organizations indicated that significant improvement is needed to fully align cyber and backup teams. This viewpoint varies even more for backup administrators compared to IT operations, security professionals and CISO roles.
Based on recent research, there are several key strategies that IT backup teams can employ to work better with cybersecurity:
Collaboration and communication: the best way to build a highly functioning team is to encourage regular communication, knowledge sharing and coordination to ensure both teams are aligned on goals, priorities and potential ransomware security risks.
Cross-training and skill development: teams work better together if they understand why a policy has been put in place or a practice has been adopted. Cross-training also opens the possibility that by having a different perspective, you can find innovative ways to address security vulnerabilities proactively.
Incident response planning: collaborate with cybersecurity teams to develop comprehensive incident response plans. Define roles and responsibilities, establish communication channels and conduct tabletop exercises to ensure IT teams are well-prepared to respond effectively to ransomware security incidents.
Continuous improvement and learning: encourage a culture of continuous improvement and learning within IT teams. Provide opportunities for professional development, certifications and attendance at industry conferences to keep IT professionals updated on the evolving cybersecurity landscape.
Strong leadership and support: foster strong leadership support for cybersecurity initiatives. Ensure that IT teams have the necessary resources, budget and authority to implement robust security measures and respond to ransomware security incidents effectively.
By implementing these strategies, IT teams can enhance their collaboration with cybersecurity, improve ransomware security posture, mitigate potential risks and successfully respond to threats like ransomware.
In terms of IT budgets, spend on cyber resiliency for both prevention and recovery is growing faster than market forecasts by IDC and Gartner. In fact, SMB organizations who are often more venerable to ransomware saw the largest upward shift in budgets for 2023. To hear more, watch this video on highlights from this Veeam report who contracted with a global research firm to survey organizations of all sizes across 14 countries around the world.
The 2023 Ransomware Trends Report provides insights into:
- Organizational alignment between cyber and backup teams – and their executive leadership
- What is in most risk management roadmaps and incident response playbooks?
- How ransoms were paid and what is changing in cyber insurance?
- How many organizations paid the ransom, even if they had policies not to – and were they able to recover?
- How pervasive was the attack and how much data were they able to eventually recover?
- Were the criminals able to affect the backup repositories or that prevented them?
- How did organizations ensure not re-infecting their environments during recovery?
The first look at the Ransomware Trends 2023 data was presented at VeeamON 2023, the Community Event for Data Recovery Experts in May 2023. Over the past several weeks, we looked at the topics below, unpacking the research results, and discussing how these findings are affecting cyber resiliency strategies for 2023 and beyond.
Stay tuned throughout the blog series to watch for additional blog posts. Previous communications on the following topics were posted on blogs and corresponding LinkedIn live recording covering:
- How bad are the attacks (frequency, pervasiveness and recoverability)
- How did organizations pay the ransom? Where does cyber insurance apply?
- How often were villains able to impact the backup repositories to force payment?
- What are organizations recovery strategies moving forward and where do they intend to recover from the next cyberattack or other disaster?
- How do you ensure not re-infecting the environment during recovery?
Remember to download the full report at 2023 Ransomware Trends Report.
If you have questions about this, or any of Veeam’s many other research projects, feel free to contact us at StrategicResearch@veeam.com.
About the 2023 Ransomware Report: the 2023 Ransomware Trends Report is the latest and largest research report based on unbiased cyber victims in the history of backup and availability, as surveyed by an independent research firm with 1,200 responses from 14 countries that summarizes nearly 3,000 cyberattacks. Download the full 2023 Ransomware Trends Report to get access to all the lessons learned from other CISOs, SecPros, IT ops and backup admins. Want to learn more about cyber resiliency solutions at Veeam? Visit the Veeam Ransomware Solutions page.