A new report from Object First shows that, based on data from freedom of information requests, only 47 percent of UK public sector organizations back up critical systems daily.
This is despite more than 28,000 data breaches reported across National Health Service (NHS) trusts, local councils, and educational institutions over the past three years, exposing personal, health, and financial data.
In addition, it finds that 57 percent of public sector organizations don’t use immutable backup storage — which leaves data vulnerable to encryption, alteration, or deletion during an attack. NHS trusts are the furthest behind here with 65 percent not storing immutable backups, followed by 57 percent of education institutions and 51 percent of local councils.
Applying zero trust principles to backup strategies is also lacking, with 54 percent of all respondents failing to do so. Only 50 percent of the organizations surveyed confirm that they have an incident response plan in place — despite the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office guidance to have one alongside regular testing.
Andy French, director of product marketing at Object First says:
Public sector organizations do vital work, often under immense resource constraints, but the scale of these data protection gaps is deeply concerning. When fewer than half of government organizations back up critical systems daily, and even fewer have implemented immutability or Zero Trust, the risks from ransomware can be catastrophic.
With ransomware attacks increasingly targeting backups, public sector organizations must strengthen their security strategies. The UK government may consider new proposals to strengthen defenses, but action is needed now. Our recent research with Enterprise Strategy Group found that 81 percent of IT professionals see immutable backup storage built on Zero Trust principles as the best defense against ransomware. That consensus sends a clear message that resilience starts with storage. This doesn’t require complex, expensive deployments. Just secure, simple, and powerful solutions that provide instant immutability.
You can find out more on the Object First site.
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