New Research Of Cyber Readiness During The Pandemic Reveals Security Gaps And The Need For New Solutions

Acronis, a global leader in cyber protection, announced the release of Acronis Cyber Protect 15, which integrates backup, disaster recovery, next-generation antimalware, cybersecurity, and endpoint management tools into a single solution. This one-of-a-kind integration eliminates the complexity of ensuring an organization’s cybersecurity, while improving its data recovery posture and enabling greater productivity. 

The new product comes at a time when businesses are struggling to safeguard their data and infrastructure against the risks of the new remote work landscape. The Acronis Cyber Readiness Report, which surveyed 3,400 global companies and remote workers in the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, revealed that 92% of the companies surveyed say they’ve adopted new technologies to enable remote work, including workplace collaboration tools, privacy solutions, and endpoint cybersecurity. 

The challenge for organizations is that managing the protection of data across the company network and all of those new devices using a stack of different solutions is expensive, time-consuming, and complicated. The lack of integration also creates gaps in the organization’s defenses that cybercriminals are exploiting.

The Acronis Cyber Readiness Report reveals that as hackers target remote workers, phishing, distributed denial of service (DDoS), and videoconferencing attacks are the most common tactics used. 

• 39% of the companies experienced a videoconferencing attack in the past three months as workers rely on apps like Zoom, Cisco Webex, and Microsoft Teams. Cisco recently revealed a vulnerability in its Webex app that could allow attackers to open, read, and steal potentially valuable or damaging content. 
• Malware attacks such as ransomware also have increased during the pandemic, with 31% of companies reporting daily cyberattacks and half (50%) being targeted at least once a week, including in July when a leading manufacturer of GPS technologies allegedly paid $10 million in a WastedLocker ransomware attack. Acronis Cyber Protection Operating Centers (CPOCs) found that 35% of customer endpoints were exposed to malware attacks that were still getting through before the deployment of Acronis Cyber Protect. 
• Phishing attacks are occurring at historic levels, which is not surprising since the report found only 2% of companies consider URL filtering when evaluating a cybersecurity solution. That oversight leaves remote workers vulnerable to phishing sites – Acronis CPOCs discovered that approximately 10% of users clicked on malicious websites in May, June, and July. 

These Acronis findings and external research illustrate why organizations need a cyber protection solution that reduces complexity and improves security to support remote work environments, and the solution must be cost-effective to address the scale of remote workers. 

The modern cyber landscape demands modern protection

“The cyberthreat landscape has changed dramatically during the past few years, and in the last six months in particular. Traditional stand-alone antivirus and backup solutions are unable to protect against modern cyberthreats,” said Serguei “SB” Beloussov, founder and CEO of Acronis. “Organizations that modernize their stack with integrated data protection and cybersecurity not only gain greater security, they lower their costs and improve efficiencies. The automation and streamlined management of Acronis Cyber Protect 15 means any business can decrease their risk, avoid downtime, and increase their IT team’s productivity.” 

With Acronis Cyber Protect 15’s unique integration of data protection and next-generation cybersecurity capabilities – including AI-based behavioral detection that stops zero-day attacks, URL filtering, vulnerability assessments, videoconference protection, and automated patch management – organizations protect against modern cyberthreats while ensuring they can recover their data and systems faster than any other solution.

• 10% of users might click on malicious links that lead to phishing attacks, but the URL filtering in Acronis Cyber Protect blocked all of those sites – protecting the users, their devices, and their company’s data.
• Videoconferencing protection prevents the exploitation of apps like Zoom, Webex, and Microsoft Teams. In fact, Acronis Cyber Protect prevented code execution exploits in Webex before it was patched by Cisco.
• Testing by independent cybersecurity labs such as AV-Test and Virus Bulletin shows that Acronis Cyber Protect’s antimalware detects 100% of malware attacks with zero false positives. If the GPS manufacturer had Acronis Cyber Protect, it would never have paid a $10 million ransom.

Based on the current cyberattack rate, the unique integration of backup and cybersecurity enables Acronis Cyber Protect to prevent an estimated $150 million in direct losses for its customers each year. 

The future of protection

The comprehensive cyber protection delivered by Acronis Cyber Protect will continue to be vital in the post-pandemic landscape. With 88% of the remote workers surveyed by Acronis expecting to work from home to some extent even after the pandemic ends, ensuring their protection and cybersecurity will require the kind of integration and automation only found in Acronis Cyber Protect 15. 

The benefits to businesses are already being lauded by organizations who have tried Acronis Cyber Protect 15. HomeBuys.com’s Network Administrator Jorge Alexandres noted that “Being able to bring together backup and restore, with remote desktop, patch management, and antimalware into a single tool provides a lot of value. Instead of using two or three tools, having a single tool with a single console is the way to go.”