Study: Ransomware Victims are Unable to Recover 43% of Affected Data

Ransomware remains an ongoing threat for organizations and is the largest single cause of IT outages and downtime as 41% of data is compromised during a cyberattack, according to the latest Veeam 2024 Ransomware Trends Report. The report also reveals that only 57% of the compromised data will be recovered, leaving organizations vulnerable to substantial data loss and negative business impact as a result.

“Ransomware is endemic, impacting 3 out of 4 organizations in 2023,” said Dave Russell, Senior Vice President and Head of Strategy at Veeam. “AI is now enabling the creation of smarter, more advanced security, but it’s also facilitating growth in the volume of sophistication of attacks.”

When a cyberattack strikes, 45% of respondents reported heightened pressure on IT and security teams. Additionally, 26% experienced a loss of productivity, while 25% encountered disruptions to internal or customer-related services. Forty-five percent of surveyed individuals cited increased workload post-attack, while 40% reported heightened stress levels and other personal challenges that are difficult to mitigate on ‘normal’ days.

Despite increased focus on cyber-preparedness, organizations still face a misalignment between their backup and cyber teams. For the third consecutive year, close to two-thirds (63%) of organizations find their backup and cyber teams lacking synchronization. Adding to the misalignment challenges in organizations, 61% of security professionals and 75% of backup admins believe that the teams need either ‘significant improvement’ or that a complete system overhaul is required.

For the third year in a row, the majority (81%) of organizations surveyed paid the ransom to end an attack and recover data. One in three of these organizations that paid the ransom still could not recover even after paying. Also, for the third year in a row, more organizations ‘paid, but could not recover’ than those organizations that ‘recovered without paying.’

Contrary to the belief that having cyber insurance increases the likelihood of ransom payments, Veeam’s research indicates otherwise. Despite only a minority of organizations possessing a policy to pay, 81% opted to do so. Interestingly, 65% paid with insurance and another 21% had insurance but chose to pay without making a claim. This implies that in 2023, 86% of organizations had insurance coverage that could have been utilized for a cyber event.

This research report is based on 1,200 survey responses from the IT leaders and implementers whose organizations suffered at least one cyberattack in 2023, each of whom serves as either a CISO, a security professional or backup administrator. The survey was completed in early 2024 and published in June 2024.

Channel Impact^®
These challenges, coupled with existing organizational struggles, further underscore the importance of effective cyber defense strategies.