Backup plans continue to be one of the most important ways to respond to a ransomware attack. If you have a backup plan, have tested it, and can migrate to it, you are better equipped to be able to respond when your system is locked by ransomware. If you do not have backups of your system, you are more vulnerable to succumbing to the ransom demand to get your business back up and running.

Mimecast recently issued its “Facing the Reality Gap: State of Ransomware Readiness” report that included conclusions from a survey of 742 cybersecurity professionals worldwide. The report is blunt and eye-opening in several respects, such as the statement, “Who’s at Risk? Everyone.” Agreed. According to the Report, the goal was “to understand how executives are managing the risk in ransomware attacks, not only from a sense of confidence in their own preparation against these attacks, but also in how they are hardening their organizational defenses against ransomware.”

Not surprisingly, the report shows that a whopping 80 percent of organizations have been attacked by ransomware, 39 percent of executives “feel they could lose their jobs over a successful ransomware attack,” more than one-third of companies chose to pay the ransom in full, 42 percent experienced disruption following a ransomware attack, and 36 percent experienced downtime after a ransomware attack.

Although executives are investing in preventive technology such as web security and end-point protection, only 45 percent of the executives surveyed said they had invested in file backups.

With these staggering statistics, the fact that fewer than half of those surveyed were actively backing up files was glaring. If yours is one of those companies, check out the Mimecast report, make it mandatory reading at the next C-Suite and Board meeting, and get that backup plan implemented and tested.