The latest Dell Global Data Protection Index (GDPI) highlights the importance of staying on course when it comes to data protection in today’s world of digital transformation. Navigating the complex terrain of data protection remains a formidable challenge and requires a determined commitment to understanding all risks that can threaten an organization’s data. The latest GDPI highlights new insights on the growing threat of cyberattacks, the rise of generative AI, and the ongoing expansion into multi-cloud environments.
Concerns about cyber threats continue to rise and remain at the top of the list of causes of organizational collapse, with 52% of respondents reporting a cyber attack that prevented access to data in the past 12 months . This is the highest percentage in the past five years. The financial impact on organizations is significant, with costs averaging $1.4 million, more than double his previous report.
This concern is well-founded, as 75% of organizations surveyed are concerned that their existing data protection measures are inadequate to address the threat of ransomware. 69% are not very confident that they will be able to recover in the event of a devastating cyberattack. However, despite these perspectives, most organizations (59%) invest more in cyber prevention than cyber recovery. The balance between prevention and recovery must be carefully considered given the reality that successful attacks are on the rise.
Another recurring red flag is that 81% of organizations believe the risk of data loss from cyberattacks has increased due to the rise in remote workforces, accelerated by the pandemic and still prevalent today. is. This sentiment is also up from his 70% in the previous poll.
New insights into the use and effectiveness of insurance contracts to reduce an organization’s financial risk have also been uncovered. 93% of organizations cited the use of ransomware insurance policies, but noted that coverage could be limited by several conditions. For example, 57% said they needed proof of best practices for cyber threat prevention, 40% noted that policies would be invalidated in some scenarios, and 40% said payments to some entities were not legal. I pointed out the fact that it may be limited.
In the end, 85% of organizations had to pay to access their data. Therefore, while insurance policies can be an effective component of a cybersecurity strategy, organizations must understand their limitations.
In response to these growing threats, organizations are not silent when it comes to strengthening their cyber resilience. Several trends indicate that organizations are becoming more proactive, with 50% bringing in professional services to shore up resources, 49% conducting regular cyber recovery testing, and 42% implements cyber vaults that are physically and logically separated from production data.
For the first time, GDPI has investigated the impact of generative AI on both the cyber threat landscape and future data protection requirements. While 52% believe generative AI will bring benefits to their organization’s cybersecurity posture, 88% believe generative AI will likely generate large amounts of new data and increase the value of certain data types. We agree that this needs to be taken into account when planning. Future data protection strategy.
While multicloud remains the preferred strategy for organizations looking to deploy or update applications, data protection remains a major concern. 79% of IT decision makers are not very confident that their organization can protect all their data across public clouds. Additionally, 40% of organizations cite challenges with data security in public multiclouds. Confidence in multicloud data protection and cybersecurity is high, given that the majority (>56%) of respondents consider multicloud data protection and cybersecurity to be the most important operational enablement capability. It is important to continue to improve.
As organizations increasingly turn to public cloud solutions, implement hybrid work models, and experiment with generative AI, the importance of data protection is becoming more apparent than ever. However, for many people, protecting and protecting their digital assets has become a more complex challenge. As companies continue to face the threat of cyber-attacks, they need to chart a path and stay on that path. As someone once said, it’s a marathon, not a sprint.
The Global Data Protection Index surveyed 1,500 IT and IT security decision makers from a wide range of public and private industries around the world in September and October 2023, including 25% of APJ respondents. was carried out.
(The author is Ripu Bajwa, Director and General Manager, Data Protection Solutions, Dell Technologies. The views expressed in this article are his own)
