World Cyber Protection Week Survey Reveals 37% of Organizations in Singapore Suffered Data Loss Resulting in Downtime Last Year

SINGAPORE, March 31, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Acronis, a Singapore-based unicorn and a global leader in cyber protection, marked its inaugural World Cyber Protection Week by revealing that 37% of companies in Singapore experienced a data loss event that resulted in downtime last year. That high number is likely caused by the fact that while nearly 98% are backing up the IT components they're responsible for protecting, only 40% back up daily – leaving many businesses with gaps in the valuable data available for recovery.

The figures revealed in Acronis' 2020 World Cyber Protection Week Survey illustrate the new reality that traditional strategies and solutions to data protection are no longer able to keep up with the modern IT needs of individuals and organizations. That is why Acronis has expanded World Backup Day – the annual holiday celebrated on March 31 as a reminder to back up data – to World Cyber Protection Week.

The annual survey, completed by nearly 3,000 people, gauges the protection habits of users around the globe – including Singapore, home for Acronis international headquarters:

• 94% of Singapore's individuals back up data and devices, but 60% still lose data due to accidental deletion, hardware or software failure, or an out-of-date backup
• 84% of organizations in Singapore aren't backing up multiple times per day, only 16% report they are
• 24% back up daily, 38% back up weekly, 20% back up monthly, and 2% aren't backing up at all
• Of those, 37% reported data loss resulting in downtime last year – with 2% more not sure if they had
• Only 20% of personal users and 16% of IT professionals follow best practices, employing hybrid backups on local media and in the cloud.

These findings stress the importance of implementing a cyber protection strategy that includes backing up your data multiple times a day and practicing the 3-2-1 backup rule.

Cyber Protection Changes the Game – And The Game Changed Too

A peaking volume of COVID-19 related cyber scams was detected in Asia in the past two weeks – in China, Vietnam, South Korea and more. Singapore being one of the most exposed as a country. Both state-sponsored and freelancers – there is no shortage of those looking to prey on the fear and chaos caused by the global pandemic.

With increasing cyberattacks, traditional backup is targeted by cyber criminals and no longer sufficient to protect data, applications, and systems – our survey shows that relying on backup alone for true business continuity is too dangerous:

• 80% of IT professionals are concerned with ransomware, 79% – cryptojacking, 80% – social engineering attacks like phishing, and 88% – data breaches. Personal users: nearly as high, rose by 33% compared to Acronis' 2019 survey
• 37% of personal users and 14% of IT professionals wouldn't know if their data was modified unexpectedly.
• Among the primary reasons for not backing up, individual users in Singapore state they thought it "not necessary", "too complicated", "takes too long".

To ensure complete protection, secure backups must be part of an organization's comprehensive cyber protection approach, which includes ransomware protection, disaster recovery, cybersecurity, and management tools. This deeply integrated approach also addresses the Five Vectors of Cyber Protection, delivering safety, accessibility, privacy, authenticity, and security (SAPAS) for all data, applications, and systems.

World Cyber Protection Week Recommendations

Whether you are concerned about personal files or your company's business continuity, Acronis has five simple recommendations to ensure fast, efficient, and secure protection of your workloads:

• Always create backups of important data. Keep multiple copies of the backup both locally and in the cloud - to guarantee you have everything if a fire, flood, or disaster hits.
• Ensure your operating systems and applications are current. Relying on outdated OSes or apps means they lack the bug fixes and security patches that help block cybercriminals from gaining access to your systems.
• Beware suspicious email, links, and attachments. Most virus and ransomware infections are the result of social engineering techniques that trick unsuspecting individuals into opening infected email attachments or clicking on links to websites that host malware.
• Install anti-virus, anti-malware, and anti-ransomware software while enabling automatic updates so your system is protected against malware, with the best software also able to protect against zero-day threats.
• Consider deploying an integrated cyber protection solution that combines backup, anti-ransomware, anti-virus, vulnerability assessment and patch management in a single solution. An integrated solution increases ease of use, efficiency and reliability of protection.

Find out more about how you can protect your data at: https://www.acronis.com/en-us/blog/posts/celebrating-final-world-backup-day

Read more about the 2020 World Cyber Protection Week survey results here: https://www.acronis.com/en-us/blog/posts/results-are-cyber-protection-week-2020-survey

About Acronis

Acronis sets the standard for cyber protection through its innovative backup, anti-ransomware, disaster recovery, storage, and enterprise file sync and share solutions. Enhanced by its award-winning AI-based active protection technology, blockchain-based data authentication and unique hybrid-cloud architecture, Acronis protects all data in any environment – including physical, virtual, cloud, mobile workloads and applications – all at a low and predictable cost.

Founded in Singapore in 2003 and incorporated in Switzerland in 2008, Acronis now has more than 1,500 employees in 33 locations in 18 countries. Its solutions are trusted by more than 5.5 million personal users and 500,000 businesses, including 100% of the Fortune 1000 companies. Acronis' products are available through 50,000 partners and service providers in over 150 countries in more than 30 languages.

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