92.7% make backups, data loss increased by 30%. What's wrong?
In 2006, at a major Russian conference, the doctor of technical sciences made a report on the growing information space. In beautiful diagrams and examples, the scientist talked about the fact that in 5-10 years in developed countries, information will come to each person in an amount that he cannot fully perceive. He talked about wireless networks, accessible at every step of the Internet and wearable electronics, and especially that information would need protection, but it would be impossible to ensure this protection 100%. Well, this is what we now formulate, and then the audience accepted him as a crazy professor who lives in the world of science fiction.
13 years have passed, and a new Acronis study has shown that science fiction has long been a reality. International backup day is the best time to talk about the results and give some important tips on how to stay protected in dozens of networks, gigabytes of incoming information and a bunch of gadgets at hand. And yes, this also applies to companies.
For cool IT people - a contest inside. Did you backup exactly? Exactly?
If you are a system administrator tired of corporate life, a security-worker exhausted by user phakaps, and you know exactly where the legs are growing from data security problems, you can immediately go to the end of the article - there are 4 cool tasks that you can win useful prizes from Acronis there is nowhere to make your information more secure (in fact, there is always where).
The first unexpected, but understandable result of the survey: 65% of respondents said that last year either they or one of their relatives faced data loss as a result of accidental deletion of files or hardware or software failures. This indicator increased by 29.4% compared to the previous year.
At the same time, for the first time in the five-year history of research conducted by Acronis, almost all consumers surveyed (92.7%) back up data from their own computers. The growth of this indicator was 24%.
Here's how the president and chief operating officer of Acronis Stanislav Protasov explains the contradiction:
The survey involved users from the United States, Britain, Germany, Spain, France, Japan, Singapore, Bulgaria and Switzerland.
This year, the survey was first conducted among business users. Due to the growing number of cases of job loss by CEOs, IT managers and other executives as a result of data hacking, online attacks and computer technology errors, Acronis decided to include data protection issues relevant to them in the study. The inclusion of business users has revealed several differences in how and why users and companies protect their digital assets.
There are a lot of
devices. The number of devices used by consumers continues to grow, with 68.9% of households claiming to use three or more devices, such as computers, smartphones and tablets. This indicator grew by 7.6% compared to last year.
Users realize the value of information
Given the growth of natural and man-made disasters, resonant extortion acts, as well as cases of data leaks, with increased data volumes, an increase in the data backup indicator suggests that consumers are still trying to protect their data. This year, only 7% of users said they had never backed up data, while last year almost one third of respondents (31.4%) provided this answer.
Users began to value their own data more, as evidenced by the fact that 69.9% are willing to spend more than $ 50 to restore lost files, photos, videos and other information. Last year, only 15% were willing to pay that amount.
To protect their own data, 62.7% of users store them at hand, storing backups on a local external hard drive (48.1%) or in a separate section of the hard drive (14.6%). Only 37.4% use cloud technology or a hybrid format of cloud and local backup.
Clouds aren't for everyone yet
Another clear problem is the inadequate adoption of cloud technology. More and more consumers say that the main value of data backup is to provide access to them - many say that they want to have “quick and easy access to backup data from any location.” But at the same time, only a third of them use cloud-based technologies for backup, providing them with the ability to extract data regardless of their location.
Main data
The main data of value to consumers are contacts, passwords and other personal information (45.8%), as well as multimedia files, including photos, videos, music and games (38.1%).
Users still need educational program
Less than half of consumers have information about threats to data such as ransomware (46%), malware for cryptocurrency mining (53%) and social engineering attacks (52%) used to spread malware. Knowledge of such dangers spreads slowly, as evidenced by the fact that the number of users who are aware of ransomware has grown by only 4% compared to last year.
Acronis Data Protection Infographic
Losses from one hour of downtime are estimated at about 300 thousand US dollars, so users from the business environment, of course, well understand the value of their company data. As CEOs and senior executives become increasingly accountable for data protection, they are taking an increasingly active interest in security issues, especially given the increase in the number of resonant cases associated with data attacks.
This explains the fact that the business users who participated in the survey have already prepared to protect their own data, applications and systems and stated that the most important aspects for them are security in terms of preventing unintended incidents and security in terms of preventing malicious actions regarding their data.
For the first time in the 2019 annual survey, business users were included, with responses from companies of all sizes, including 32.7% of small businesses with up to 100 employees, 41% of medium-sized companies with 101 to 999 employees and 26, 3% of large enterprises with more than 1,000 employees.
For most companies, data protection is becoming one of the most important priorities: for example, companies back up data monthly (25.1%), weekly (24.8%) or daily (25.9%). As a result of such measures, 68.7% said they had no downtime last year due to data loss.
Such companies are well aware of the latest risks threatening their data, as a result of which they have expressed concern or extreme concern regarding ransomware (60.6%), crypto jacking (60.1%) and social engineering (61%).
Today, companies of all sizes rely on cloud-based backups, with 48.3% using only cloud-based backups, and 26.8% using a combination of cloud-based and local backups.
Given their requirements related to data security and protection, it is quite possible to understand their interest in cloud technologies. Exactly from the point of view of security in the context of inadvertent data loss (“reliable backup so that data can always be recovered”), external cloud backup guarantees data availability even in the event of the destruction of office premises due to fire, floods or other natural disasters. From a security point of view, in the context of malicious activities (“data protected from online threats and cybercriminals”), the cloud is an obstacle to the deployment of malware.
To protect personal files or ensure business continuity, Acronis recommends four simple steps to help protect data. However, these tips will be clearly not out of place for private users.
Today, March 31st is the International Backup Day. This is at least an excuse to make a backup in anticipation of April Fools ’draws, and at the very least - win prizes from Acronis. Especially Sunday evening has to do with it.
This time, the annual Acronis True Image 2019 Cyber Protection license with 1 TB in the cloud is at stake - 5 winners will receive it.
The first three we will additionally present:
To participate, you need to solve difficult (as always), but interesting puzzles. The first is uncomplicated, the second and third are mediocre, and the fourth is for real hardcore artists.
Ambitious Pasha loves to encrypt texts, what did he encrypt this time? Ciphertext:
What plugins for popular CMS (WordPress, Drupal and others) do you recommend for backup and migration. Than they are worse / better than ordinary backups and Application Aware backups.
How to work with the registry data of your application since Windows 8. It is advisable to give an example of the correct update of two values in the registry key. Why is backup unable to solve the problem of logical registry consistency?
Vasya wants to load the dll into the child process (created with the SUSPENDED flag), the dll name was copied using VirtualAllocEx / WriteProcessMemory
CreateRemoteThread (hChildProcess, nullptr, 0, LoadLibraryA, remoteDllName, 0, nullptr);
But because of ASLR in the child process, kernelbase.dll is located at a different address.
On 64-bit Windows, EnumModulesEx is not working at this point. Suggest 3 methods for finding the address of kernelbase.dll in a child frozen process.
It is desirable to implement one of the methods.
Well, for other readers of Habr, one important and necessary wish: made backups - sleep well!
13 years have passed, and a new Acronis study has shown that science fiction has long been a reality. International backup day is the best time to talk about the results and give some important tips on how to stay protected in dozens of networks, gigabytes of incoming information and a bunch of gadgets at hand. And yes, this also applies to companies.
For cool IT people - a contest inside. Did you backup exactly? Exactly?
Disclaimer
If you are a system administrator tired of corporate life, a security-worker exhausted by user phakaps, and you know exactly where the legs are growing from data security problems, you can immediately go to the end of the article - there are 4 cool tasks that you can win useful prizes from Acronis there is nowhere to make your information more secure (in fact, there is always where).
Contradiction of contradictions
The first unexpected, but understandable result of the survey: 65% of respondents said that last year either they or one of their relatives faced data loss as a result of accidental deletion of files or hardware or software failures. This indicator increased by 29.4% compared to the previous year.
At the same time, for the first time in the five-year history of research conducted by Acronis, almost all consumers surveyed (92.7%) back up data from their own computers. The growth of this indicator was 24%.
Here's how the president and chief operating officer of Acronis Stanislav Protasov explains the contradiction:
“At first glance, these two conclusions seem contradictory, because how can the loss of more data occur if almost all users began to make their backups? However, there are reasons why these survey indicators look like this. People use more devices and work with data from more points than ever before, which creates more reasons for their loss. For example, users can back up data stored on a laptop, but if they accidentally forget a smartphone in a taxi that they do not back up, then the data will still be lost. ”That is, the reason was our very reality, where we not only get tired of the information, but also do not have time to control all the sources of danger, and therefore quickly and adequately respond to them. It turns out that against the background of automation and informatization, the human factor begins to play a particularly important and even critical role.
Survey Brief
The survey involved users from the United States, Britain, Germany, Spain, France, Japan, Singapore, Bulgaria and Switzerland.
This year, the survey was first conducted among business users. Due to the growing number of cases of job loss by CEOs, IT managers and other executives as a result of data hacking, online attacks and computer technology errors, Acronis decided to include data protection issues relevant to them in the study. The inclusion of business users has revealed several differences in how and why users and companies protect their digital assets.
Survey results: let's learn from the mistakes of others
Only 7% of users make no effort to protect their own data.
There are a lot of
devices. The number of devices used by consumers continues to grow, with 68.9% of households claiming to use three or more devices, such as computers, smartphones and tablets. This indicator grew by 7.6% compared to last year.
Users realize the value of information
Given the growth of natural and man-made disasters, resonant extortion acts, as well as cases of data leaks, with increased data volumes, an increase in the data backup indicator suggests that consumers are still trying to protect their data. This year, only 7% of users said they had never backed up data, while last year almost one third of respondents (31.4%) provided this answer.
Users began to value their own data more, as evidenced by the fact that 69.9% are willing to spend more than $ 50 to restore lost files, photos, videos and other information. Last year, only 15% were willing to pay that amount.
To protect their own data, 62.7% of users store them at hand, storing backups on a local external hard drive (48.1%) or in a separate section of the hard drive (14.6%). Only 37.4% use cloud technology or a hybrid format of cloud and local backup.
Clouds aren't for everyone yet
Another clear problem is the inadequate adoption of cloud technology. More and more consumers say that the main value of data backup is to provide access to them - many say that they want to have “quick and easy access to backup data from any location.” But at the same time, only a third of them use cloud-based technologies for backup, providing them with the ability to extract data regardless of their location.
Main data
The main data of value to consumers are contacts, passwords and other personal information (45.8%), as well as multimedia files, including photos, videos, music and games (38.1%).
Users still need educational program
Less than half of consumers have information about threats to data such as ransomware (46%), malware for cryptocurrency mining (53%) and social engineering attacks (52%) used to spread malware. Knowledge of such dangers spreads slowly, as evidenced by the fact that the number of users who are aware of ransomware has grown by only 4% compared to last year.
Acronis Data Protection Infographic
Companies actively protect cloud data
Losses from one hour of downtime are estimated at about 300 thousand US dollars, so users from the business environment, of course, well understand the value of their company data. As CEOs and senior executives become increasingly accountable for data protection, they are taking an increasingly active interest in security issues, especially given the increase in the number of resonant cases associated with data attacks.
This explains the fact that the business users who participated in the survey have already prepared to protect their own data, applications and systems and stated that the most important aspects for them are security in terms of preventing unintended incidents and security in terms of preventing malicious actions regarding their data.
For the first time in the 2019 annual survey, business users were included, with responses from companies of all sizes, including 32.7% of small businesses with up to 100 employees, 41% of medium-sized companies with 101 to 999 employees and 26, 3% of large enterprises with more than 1,000 employees.
For most companies, data protection is becoming one of the most important priorities: for example, companies back up data monthly (25.1%), weekly (24.8%) or daily (25.9%). As a result of such measures, 68.7% said they had no downtime last year due to data loss.
Such companies are well aware of the latest risks threatening their data, as a result of which they have expressed concern or extreme concern regarding ransomware (60.6%), crypto jacking (60.1%) and social engineering (61%).
Today, companies of all sizes rely on cloud-based backups, with 48.3% using only cloud-based backups, and 26.8% using a combination of cloud-based and local backups.
Given their requirements related to data security and protection, it is quite possible to understand their interest in cloud technologies. Exactly from the point of view of security in the context of inadvertent data loss (“reliable backup so that data can always be recovered”), external cloud backup guarantees data availability even in the event of the destruction of office premises due to fire, floods or other natural disasters. From a security point of view, in the context of malicious activities (“data protected from online threats and cybercriminals”), the cloud is an obstacle to the deployment of malware.
4 useful tips for everyone
To protect personal files or ensure business continuity, Acronis recommends four simple steps to help protect data. However, these tips will be clearly not out of place for private users.
- Always back up important data. Store backups both locally (to provide quick access to them and the possibility of any frequent recovery), and in the cloud (to ensure the safety of all data in the event of the destruction of the office as a result of theft, fire, flood or other natural disasters).
- Regularly update the operating system and software. The use of outdated versions of the OS or applications means that the errors remain uncorrected, and the security fixes that help block cybercriminals from accessing the corresponding system are uninstalled.
- Pay attention to suspicious emails, links and attachments. Most cases of virus infection of the system or the launch of ransomware programs occur as a result of the use of social engineering methods, under the influence of which users open fraudulently infected email applications or click on links that lead to websites with malware.
- Install antivirus software and run automatic system updates to protect it from the latest known threats. Windows users must confirm the activation and relevance of Windows Defender.
How can Acronis help you?
Due to the incredibly fast evolution of modern threats to data, companies and users are striving to find data protection solutions that provide maximum protection, including flexible local, hybrid and cloud backups and powerful anti-virus software.
Only backup solutions from Acronis ( Acronis Backup for companies and Acronis True Image for individual users) require active protection against ransomware and crypto-jacking based on artificial intelligence, capable of detecting and blocking malicious programs in real time and automatically recover any damaged ones files. The technology is so effective that last year it managed to prevent 400 thousand of such attacks.
A new version of such integrated protection called Acronis Active Protection recently received a new malware detection and blocking feature for mining cryptocurrency. The Acronis Active Protection update, released in the fall of 2018, blocked tens of thousands of malware attacks for cryptocurrency mining during the first months of operation.
Only backup solutions from Acronis ( Acronis Backup for companies and Acronis True Image for individual users) require active protection against ransomware and crypto-jacking based on artificial intelligence, capable of detecting and blocking malicious programs in real time and automatically recover any damaged ones files. The technology is so effective that last year it managed to prevent 400 thousand of such attacks.
A new version of such integrated protection called Acronis Active Protection recently received a new malware detection and blocking feature for mining cryptocurrency. The Acronis Active Protection update, released in the fall of 2018, blocked tens of thousands of malware attacks for cryptocurrency mining during the first months of operation.
→ Acronis Habr Contest for International Backup Day - Tasks for IT Workers
Today, March 31st is the International Backup Day. This is at least an excuse to make a backup in anticipation of April Fools ’draws, and at the very least - win prizes from Acronis. Especially Sunday evening has to do with it. This time, the annual Acronis True Image 2019 Cyber Protection license with 1 TB in the cloud is at stake - 5 winners will receive it.
The first three we will additionally present:
- for 1 place - portable speakers
- for 2 place - power bank
- for 3rd place - Acronis mug
To participate, you need to solve difficult (as always), but interesting puzzles. The first is uncomplicated, the second and third are mediocre, and the fourth is for real hardcore artists.
→ Problem 1
Ambitious Pasha loves to encrypt texts, what did he encrypt this time? Ciphertext:
tnuyyet sud qaurue → Problem 2
What plugins for popular CMS (WordPress, Drupal and others) do you recommend for backup and migration. Than they are worse / better than ordinary backups and Application Aware backups.
→ Problem 3
How to work with the registry data of your application since Windows 8. It is advisable to give an example of the correct update of two values in the registry key. Why is backup unable to solve the problem of logical registry consistency?
→ Problem 4
Vasya wants to load the dll into the child process (created with the SUSPENDED flag), the dll name was copied using VirtualAllocEx / WriteProcessMemory
CreateRemoteThread (hChildProcess, nullptr, 0, LoadLibraryA, remoteDllName, 0, nullptr);
But because of ASLR in the child process, kernelbase.dll is located at a different address.
On 64-bit Windows, EnumModulesEx is not working at this point. Suggest 3 methods for finding the address of kernelbase.dll in a child frozen process.
It is desirable to implement one of the methods.
The decision is given 2 weeks - until April 13. On April 14, the Acronis jury will select and announce the winners.
UPD:
Dear friends, our competition for solving problems has ended.
The only winner who correctly solved all the problems was StasPo
Congratulations! Portable speakers and an annual license of Acronis True Image 2019 with 1TB of cloud storage are sent to you :)
→ To participate in the competition and send answers, register here
Well, for other readers of Habr, one important and necessary wish: made backups - sleep well!
Only registered users can participate in the survey. Please come in.
Do you backup personal information?
- 60.2% I do backups of information from a personal PC 256
- 33.6% I do backups of information from a smartphone 143
- 8% I do backups of information from the tablet 34
- 29.8% I make backups from any device 127
- 18.8% I do not backup personal information 80
Does your company make backups?
- 48.8% Yes, but how else! 193
- 19.7% Backing up only the most important information 78
- 8.3% Do when we remember 33
- 5.3% Don't 21
- 17.7% I do not do this, I do not know 70
Have you personally or your loved ones lost, leaked or hacked data?
- 54.3% Yes 218
- 34.4% No 138
- 11.2% Not Tracked 45
Have there been any losses, leaks, hacking of data in your company?
- 19.7% Yes, until 2018 73
- 11% Yes, in 2018 41
- 4.8% Yes, constantly 18
- 17.5% No, it wasn’t - the information is not very valuable 65
- 27.2% I do not do this, I do not know 101
- 19.4% No, it wasn’t - powerful information protection 72