Veeam, a data protection and ransomware recovery company, has unveiled revealing data about cyber readiness in its annual 2024 Veeam Data Protection Trends Report. The report showcases a worrying lack of cyber preparedness among businesses across the Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ).

Disturbing findings from the report include that eight in 10 organisations suffered more than one ransomware attack in 2023. Moreover, 90% of those surveyed highlighted a concerning availability gap between their expectations of their IT systems' resilience and the system's actual recovery capacity post an interruption, such as a cyber incident.

During a disaster test, it was found that only 59% of servers could be recovered within the expected timeframe, implying that two out of five servers failed to come back online promptly after a crisis.

The critical study also revealed data protection budget increases are racing ahead, with businesses hoping to achieve cyber resilience in the face of ongoing threats from ransomware and cyber-attacks. A vast 92% of organisations are planning to up their 2024 data protection budget. However, despite increased spending, IT leaders feel less assured and worry increasingly about their ability to restore and recover essential data.

Despite organisations putting a greater emphasis on using the cloud for significant recovery situations, only a small fraction believe they would be able to recover from even a modest crisis within a week. Significantly, cyber-attacks remain the principal cause of business outages for the fourth consecutive year.

Interestingly, the report also flagged that digital transformation initiatives are being hindered by cyber threats, which along with addressing environmental, social, and governmental objectives, score the highest as obstacles to IT modernisation. Furthermore, despite most organisations considering cyber resilience as a foundational facet of their broader business continuity or disaster recovery strategy, less than one-third of them believe they could recover from a small attack or outage within a week.

Dave Russell, VP of Enterprise Strategy at Veeam, stressed the need for continued cybersecurity vigilance. "Ransomware continues to be the biggest threat to business continuity," he said. "It's the number one cause of outages today, and protecting against it is hampering digital transformation efforts. Furthermore, although companies are increasing their spend on protection, less than a third of companies believe they can recover quickly from a small attack."

Another notable insight from the report highlighted that while usage of containers in enterprises continues to ascend, only a quarter of organisations use a backup solution purpose-built for containers. The intent of 47% of respondents to seek a new job outside of their current organisation within the next twelve months is also noteworthy. This signifies both a threat to and an opportunity for data protection strategies.