Closing IT security gaps will cost German companies more than 2 million euros in the next 12 months

There is a lack of clarity in many companies regarding the number of cloud services used and the amount of data stored.

The risks of ransomware attacks and data loss have exploded as a result of the pandemic-driven IT transformation: In the Corona crisis, many companies switched to home offices - but protecting the new IT infrastructure implemented for this purpose was not a high priority.

The resulting gaps and vulnerabilities are having a massive impact on the future: According to the study, companies in Germany will have to spend an additional average of almost two million euros and hire 24 new IT employees to cover the new technologies and the new vulnerabilities.

What's more, companies will have to reckon with a higher risk of ransomware attacks and data loss for the next two years. These are the key findings of the "Vulnerability Lag Report" recently conducted by U.S. data solutions specialist Veritas Technologies.

Cloud environments are most vulnerable to vulnerabilities: Nearly two-thirds of study participants in Germany have implemented new cloud capabilities or elements of their cloud infrastructure beyond their original intentions during the pandemic (64 percent).

Just under half of respondents said there were gaps in their cloud security strategy, which is more than in any other area. In addition, 45 percent of German firms struggle with compliance and other regulations - more than the global average.

What's more, IT experts are often not sure which cloud solutions are already in use in their company. Only two-thirds of respondents were able to accurately state the number of cloud services currently in use (66 percent).

More than half of the data redundant, outdated or trivial

There is also a lack of clarity when it comes to the amount of data accumulated in companies. According to the survey, on average more than 30 percent of the data stored in a company is so-called "dark data": this means that its content and value are unknown. And that's not all: more than half of all stored information is so-called ROT data, i.e. redundant, obsolete or trivial (Redundant, Obsolete, Trivial - 55 percent).

The study also shows the impact a security breach can have on the company's business operations. For example, eight out of ten respondents said their company had suffered from outages in the past 12 months (82 percent). On average, each company fell victim to nearly two ransomware attacks that resulted in downtime. By contrast, companies that said they were able to close all security gaps were five times less likely to be affected by ransomware attacks and associated downtime globally.

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