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New research of cyber readiness during pandemic reveals security gaps, need for new solutions

As Acronis Cyber Protect 15 is released, new global research reveals that 31% of companies struggle with daily cyber attacks and new protection challenges caused by remote work.

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

“This new product comes at the right time – businesses are struggling to safeguard their data and infrastructure against the risks and challenges of the new remote work landscape,” observes Peter French, Managing Director at Synapsys, the leading distributor of Acronis cyber protection in Africa.

“With the long-term prospects for remote work being a key feature of our new normal, organisations need to understand their level of cyber readiness,” French adds.

Cyber readiness

The Acronis Cyber Readiness Report surveyed 3 400 companies and remote workers in multiple countries – including South Africa – in the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The just-released report revealed that 37% of the survey respondents listed WiFi connectivity as the top challenge – most notably in South Africa and India.

Ninety-two percent of the companies surveyed indicated adoption of new technologies to enable remote work. They face the additional challenge of managing the protection of data across the company network and all of those new devices – typically using a stack of different solutions, which is expensive, time-consuming and complicated. The lack of integration also creates gaps in the organisation’s defences that cyber criminals are exploiting.

Phishing, DDOS, video conferencing attacks most common

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

Thirty-nine percent of the companies experienced a videoconferencing attack in the past three months as workers rely on apps like Zoom, Cisco Webex and Microsoft Teams.

Malware attacks such as ransomware also have increased during the pandemic, with 31% of companies reporting daily cyber attacks and half (50%) being targeted at least once a week. South Africa is among the handful of countries reporting almost twice as many malware attacks as the global average.

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 cyber security solution. That oversight leaves remote workers vulnerable to phishing sites – Acronis Cyber Protection Operations Centers (CPOCs) discovered that approximately 10% of users clicked on malicious Web sites in May, June and July.

These Acronis findings and external research illustrate why organisations 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 cyber threat landscape has changed dramatically during the past few years, and in the last six months in particular. Traditional standalone anti-virus and backup solutions are unable to protect against modern cyber threats,” said Serguei “SB” Beloussov, founder and CEO of Acronis.

Peter French, Managing Director of Synapsys
Peter French, Managing Director of Synapsys

Like its built-for-service-providers counterpart, Acronis Cyber Protect 15’s unique integration of data protection and next-generation cyber security capabilities – including AI-based behavioural detection that stops zero-day attacks, URL filtering, vulnerability assessments, video conference protection, and automated patch management – affords organisations protection against modern cyber threats while ensuring they can recover their data and systems faster than any other solution.

Ten percent 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.

Video conferencing protection prevents the exploitation of apps like Zoom, Webex and Microsoft Teams.

Testing by independent cyber security labs such as AV-Test and Virus Bulletin shows that Acronis Cyber Protect’s anti-malware detects 100% of malware attacks with zero false positives.

Based on the current cyber attack rate, the unique integration of backup and cyber security 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 cyber security will require the kind of integration and automation only found in Acronis Cyber Protect 15.

Get in touch with Synapsys if you would like an introduction to one of our partners offering Acronis Cyber Protect 15, and to find out more about cyber protection for remote work.


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Synapsys

Synapsys is the award-winning distributor of Acronis cyber protection solutions and services in Africa. Founded in 1997, it became one of the world’s first Acronis distributors in 2003. Today it is 100% focussed on supporting managed service providers who sell Acronis cyber protection solutions and services to their customers, helping them to maximise the benefits of this pioneering technology and way of working. Data protection and backup can no longer be considered apart from cybersecurity and Acronis’s complete, innovative cyber protection service offers full digital business protection and keeps organisations #cyberfit.

Find out more at synapsys.co.za

Acronis

Acronis unifies data protection and cybersecurity to deliver integrated, automated cyber protection that solves the safety, accessibility, privacy, authenticity, and security (SAPAS) challenges of the modern digital world. With flexible deployment models that fit the demands of service providers and IT professionals, Acronis provides superior cyber protection for data, applications, and systems with innovative next-generation antivirus, backup, disaster recovery, and endpoint protection management solutions. With award-winning AI-based antimalware and blockchain-based data authentication technologies, Acronis protects any environment – from cloud to hybrid to on-premises – at a low and predictable cost.

Founded in Singapore in 2003 and incorporated in Switzerland in 2008, Acronis now has more than 1,500 employees in 33 locations in 18 countries. Its solutions are trusted by more than 5.5 million home users and 500,000 companies, including 100% of the Fortune 1000, and top-tier professional sports teams. Acronis products are available through 50,000 partners and service providers in over 150 countries in more than 40 languages.

Editorial contacts

Rebecca Domingo
Marketing & Communications
rebecca@synapsys.co.za