50% of US and UK Respondents Experienced Data Loss Due to Inadequate Backup Procedures

Apricorn, Inc. announced findings from a Twitter poll exploring backup and recovery processes.

More than 50% of respondents noted that they, or their employees, have experienced a loss of data as a result of not backing up, or a failed backup.

Despite this, more than 60% of respondents stated that they are not required to play a role in backing up company data. This is particularly concerning given the troves of data now moving beyond the boundaries of the corporate network, as more businesses adopt work-from-home scenarios. Respondents recognize backups as a central IT function but are clearly not sanctioned to take personal action, whether that be through tech, policy or processes.

Jon Fielding, MD, EMEA, commented: “This month is Cybersecurity Awareness Month and the focus is on Do Your Part. #BeCyberSmart. Data security is not the responsibility of just one person within an organization; every employee plays a part and having individual, as well as central, backups in place is critical for maintaining a strong cyber security posture and BC. Backup keeps information safe, and enables a much faster response towards complete restoration and recovery in the event of a disaster, reducing downtime and minimizing financial and reputational damage.” 

While backup procedures are still not at the forefront of all business cybersecurity plans, those that are backing up state that they are using the cloud (55%) as their primary location for backups. That said: only 36% of respondents believe the cloud is the most failsafe place to do so. 28% suggested offsite data centers are a secure alternative and 24% noted removable storage devices as the most failsafe place to backup company data so it can be recovered after a breach/loss.

“The fact that businesses are making additional backups of their data is a huge positive, but the responses suggest that businesses are heavily reliant on cloud storage for primary and/or secondary backups,” said Kurt Markley, MD, Americas. “The 3-2-1 rule should form the basis of any backup processes: keep 3 total copies of your data, on 2 different mediums, with 1 copy stored off-site. Maintaining physical backups even if you use cloud storage is essential in case your cloud provider experiences downtime and/or faces a breach.”

However, a third of respondents admitted to not backing up data to a second off-site location. Of those that do, over 30% are backing up to the cloud and just over 20% are relying on storage devices to keep secondary backups.

“Online and offline storage should go hand in hand. Removable storage devices are complementary to the cloud, enabling the retention of some element of control over the data rather than abdicating all responsibility to a cloud storage provider. By backing up locally on hardware encrypted storage devices, and mandating employees also do this every day ensures you have recent copies of your data and makes restoring from different backup versions as easy as possible. Businesses need to make certain that should a breach occur, they have coupled their backup plan with a DR plan also,” Markley concluded.

Methodology
Comprising of 5 question and answer options and drawing 5,415 responses, the Twitter poll was conducted over 2 days during the week of September 12, 2021.