Companies still struggling to protect their data: EMC study

  • Businesses in Singapore still challenged by the rapid evolution of cybercrime
  • 33% of them have suffered data loss in the last 12 months
Companies still struggling to protect their data: EMC study

 
ORGANISATIONS are failing to appreciate the growing challenges of protecting their data and, as a result, are experiencing the economic impact of data loss, according to EMC Corp.
 
New findings from the EMC Global Data Protection Index 2016, an independent study by Vanson Bourne of enterprise backup in 18 countries around the world, revealed that while businesses have been successful in reducing the impact of the four biggest traditional data loss risks, they are unprepared for new, emerging threats, which are taking their toll instead.
 
When compared to the EMC Global Data Protection Index 2014, 13% more businesses worldwide experienced data loss or disruption in the last 12 months, costing them an average of US$914,000, EMC said in a statement.
 
READ ALSO: How to ensure you have a data-secured environment
 
In Singapore, 33% of businesses have suffered data loss in the last 12 months – a similar result to the 2014 study with 34% of Singapore businesses. The data loss is estimated to have cost Singapore companies some US$1.3 million.
 
“Businesses are going to find themselves exposed to new and emerging threats to their data, at a velocity that they have not dealt with before,” said EMC Singapore managing director Eric Goh.
 
“Our research shows that many businesses in Singapore are unaware of the potential impact and are failing to plan for them, which is a threat in itself.
 
“Despite [the country] being ranked first in the World Economic Forum Global Information Technology Report in 2015, today’s results indicate that businesses in Singapore are still challenged by the rapid evolution of cybercrime with unplanned data loss and downtime crippling the system,” he added.
 
EMC said it commissioned the updated research to help organisations recognise and prepare for the rapidly changing landscape of threats to enterprise data.
 
Survey results from the EMC Global Data Protection Index 2016 identified the following three major challenges to modern data protection in Singapore:
 
1) Threats to protection data
 
An overwhelming 62% of businesses surveyed in Singapore have suffered unplanned systems downtime in the past 12 months. More than a quarter (28%) of businesses had experienced data loss or unplanned systems disruption due to an external or internal security breach.
 
Businesses are increasingly facing threats not just to their primary data, but also to their backup and protection data. Whether combating cyber-extortionists demanding cash to unlock data encrypted by ransomware, or other risks posed to backup and protection data, businesses need to find solutions that put their ‘data of last resort’ beyond harm’s reach.
 
To address this threat, EMC said it is launching a new Isolated Recovery Solutions line to help organisations ‘air gap’ a protection instance of their data from the networked enterprise.
 
2) Threats to data in the cloud
 
Top business applications are currently being run in the public cloud with increased number of Singaporean organisations expected to adopt cloud technology for mission-critical applications such as websites (38%), productivity (30%), and email (29%) in the next 12 months.
 
Yet less than half said they protect cloud data against corruption and less than half against deletion. 49% of Singapore respondents said they already run their email solution in the public cloud.
 
And, overall, respondents already had, on average 26% of their IT environments based in the public cloud.
 
Because SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) application providers often won’t protect against accidental loss or deletion by an employee, EMC believes it is critical for organisations to include cloud applications in their overall data protection strategies.
 
3) Evolving protection needs
 
Close to 80% of Singapore organisations surveyed are not very confident they can fully recover their systems or data in the event of data loss or unexpected systems downtime.
 
And confidence also suffers when it comes to data centre performance, with 85% declaring they are not very confident their solutions will be able to keep pace with the faster performance and new capabilities of flash storage.
 
Businesses in Singapore also showed low confidence with 83% indicating that their current data protection solutions are insufficient to meet all future businesses challenges.
 
Related Stories:
 
Could we be heading into data dystopia?
 
APAC enterprises already in data consolidation mode: Pivotal survey
 
Philippines data breach downplayed, 55mil voters at risk: Trend Micro
 
 
For more technology news and the latest updates, follow us on TwitterLinkedIn or Like us on Facebook.
 

 
Keyword(s) :
 
Author Name :
 
Download Digerati50 2020-2021 PDF

Digerati50 2020-2021

Get and download a digital copy of Digerati50 2020-2021