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36% of government IT departments still need a documented disaster recovery plan
July 2023 by Arcserve
According to an Arcserve report, IT departments have had varying ransomware experiences and data recovery habits. It was revealed that government departments are vulnerable to ransomware and cannot recover their data when ransomware attacks hit them.
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Over a third of government IT departments need a documented disaster recovery plan, and many remote government workers must be equipped with backup and recovery solutions. Many government IT departments mistakenly believe they are not responsible for recovering data and applications in public clouds, which is concerning. These findings come from the latest Arcserve Survey, revealing several weaknesses hampering the fight against ransomware attacks and ability to recover data in many government departments.
Government organisations have come under increasing criticism in recent months for failing to have a well-designed disaster recovery plan in place to help ensure that they can continue to provide essential services and protect critical data during a disaster.
Mark Appleton, Chief Customer Office at ALSO Cloud UK, commented: The fact that a significant percentage of government IT departments need a documented disaster recovery plan and that many remote government workers need to be equipped with backup and recovery solutions suggests that more needs to be done to improve disaster recovery planning and preparedness. By investing in disaster recovery planning and preparedness, government organisations can help minimise the costs associated with unexpected events and ensure they can continue providing essential services to the public."
The report also noted that 33% of government organisations require over a day to recover from severe data loss, despite 82% reporting that less than one day is an acceptable level of downtime for critical systems.
Appleton concluded: “The fact that many government organisations require over a day to recover from severe data loss suggests that there may be room for improvement in disaster recovery procedures and testing. Government organisations need to have robust backup and recovery plans in place to minimise the impact of such incidents and ensure that they can recover as quickly as possible. Implementing regular testing of backup and recovery solutions or investing in cloud-based disaster recovery solutions can help minimise downtime in the event of an attack.”
