A majority of companies believe they have the necessary technologies and processes in place to deal with security events in a timely manner, but new survey data shows that in practice, this isn’t the case. 

Cohesity surveyed 3,1000 IT and security decision makers for its Global Cyber Resilience Report 2024, and 78% of the respondents say they are confident in their cyber resilience strategy.

However, 67% of respondents said they have been the victim of a ransomware attack this year. Most companies also have a different plan for dealing with ransomware than what ends up actually happening. Seventy-seven percent of respondents say their company has a “do not pay” policy, yet 69% of respondents admitted to having paid a ransom this year. 

Of those that paid ransoms, 37% paid up to $250k, 23% paid from $250k to $500k, 23% paid from $500k to $1 million, and 18% paid over $1 million. Seven respondents (0.33%) said they’ve paid a ransom between $10 million and $25 million.

And despite the majority of respondents being confident in their cyber resilience, only 2% of respondents said they would be able to recover data and restore business processes within 24 hours. Eighteen percent said they could do so in 1-3 days, 32% said they could in 4-6 days, 31% said they could in 1-2 weeks, and 16% said they need over three weeks to get back to normal.

Other interesting findings of the report include: 

  • 96% believe the threat of cyberattacks either will increase in 2024 or already has, and 59% believe it will increase by over 50% compared to last year
  • Only 52% use multi-factor authentication, 49% use rules that require multiple approvals (quorum controls), and 46% use role-based access control
  • 80% believe they have responded to AI-based attacks in the last 12 months

“Cyber resilience is critical because the incentive and motivation of attackers is so high, with attack surfaces incredibly vast, so a reliance on protective controls is unrealistic,” said Brian Spanswick, CISO and CIO of Cohesity. “Successful cyberattacks and data breaches severely disrupt business continuity, impacting revenue, reputation, and customer trust. This risk must be at the forefront of business leaders’ priorities, not just IT and Security leaders. Similarly, regulation and legislation should not be seen by companies as the ‘ceiling,’ but instead the ‘floor,’ in both developing cyber resilience and adopting data security or recovery capabilities.”

Read the full report here. 

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