With 2025 fast approaching, IT leaders are seeking to improve their cyber recovery capabilities. Ransomware's success in compromising backup data has led to skyrocketing recovery costs and downtime, and a significant portion of data often remains unrecoverable. As businesses scramble to modernize their backup infrastructure, cloud-based cyber vaulting and active defense capabilities are becoming essential tools in the fight against ransomware. These top 10 stats provide a snapshot of the most important considerations for organizations aiming to fortify their defenses and streamline recovery processes.
Backups are a prime target for cyber attacks:
Backups have become a prime target for cybercriminals, as they contain a trove of sensitive and historical data that can serve as powerful leverage if stolen. The costs associated with compromised backups are alarmingly high, forcing companies to pay increased ransoms and face significantly elevated recovery expenses. Additionally, the risk of reinfection looms large if organizations do not ensure that their backups are clean before restoration, further complicating recovery efforts and leaving them vulnerable to repeat attacks.
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96% of ransomware attacks target backups, and 76% of these attacks are successful in compromising backup data. - Veeam 2024 Ransomware Trends Report
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Ransom demands and payments double, and the overall recovery cost is eight times higher when backups are compromised from an attack. - Sophos The Impact of Compromised Backups on Ransomware Outcomes
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Only 37% of organizations ensure their backups are clean before restoring data after a ransomware attack. This oversight significantly increases the risk of re-infection and further compromises recovery efforts. Veeam 2024 Ransomware Trends Report
Ransomware’s impact is more significant than ever:
After a ransomware attack, many organizations recover only a portion of their data, with some experiencing permanent data loss. Even when ransoms are paid, nearly half of the victims fail to recover their lost data. Recovery times are lengthening, and the costs associated with downtime are rising significantly.
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On average, organizations recover only 57% of compromised data after an attack, meaning 43% of data is permanently lost. Veeam 2024 Ransomware Trends Report
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Even after paying a ransom, 43% of affected data is not recoverable. This means a significant portion of data may remain permanently lost, even if a company meets the attacker’s demands. - Veeam 2024 Ransomware Trends Report
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The average recovery time following a ransomware attack is 3.4 weeks (about 136 business hours of downtime), underscoring the operational and financial toll of prolonged disruptions. Veeam 2024 Ransomware Trends Report
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The average cost of downtime has increased to $9,000 per minute for large organizations, sometimes eclipsing $5 million per hour for higher-risk enterprises like finance and healthcare. - Forbes
Backup modernization and active defense is a top priority:
Due to the increased challenges posed by modern ransomware, backup modernization has become a critical priority for organizations. With growing threats to data security, businesses need more advanced tools to protect their cloud and multi-cloud environments, and the adoption of active defense solutions is emerging as a vital strategy for preventing data loss.
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With rising backup failures, 28% of organizations listed backup modernization among their top three IT initiatives for the next year, highlighting a pressing need for more resilient data protection solutions. - IDC Market Report
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While 90% of organizations use cloud services for some aspect of data protection, only 58% protect fewer than half of their applications using cloud disaster recovery (DR) solutions. Organizations seek solutions with a broad scope to support hybrid and multi-cloud environments. - IDC Market Report
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Gartner forecasts that by 2028, 100% of the market will adopt data storage solutions with active defense capabilities, marking a crucial shift toward proactive protection. - Gartner Hype Cycle for Storage Technologies, 2024
As businesses plan their 2025 IT budgets, modernizing backup systems to protect against intrusion, theft, outages, and downtime has become a top priority. Cloud-based cyber vaulting provides active defense against ransomware and enables rapid recovery without risk of reinfection. With controls to prevent data exfiltration and self-healing capabilities, business IT leaders agree that modern cyber vaulting has become vital for maintaining resilience in an increasingly challenging threat landscape.
