Recovery readiness a missing link in cyber resilience, finds report

A new survey from Triangle Technology Services has highlighted a critical gap in cyber resilience among organisations. The survey, which polled 130 IT and security decision-makers, revealed that prolonged business outages pose a significant risk to companies. With the rapid advancement of frontier AI, cyber threats are becoming more formidable, and the research underscores the need for improved recovery readiness.

The survey found that 64% of organisations do not have a key risk remediation in place, and although 62% have isolated backups, only 36% could verify the integrity of that data when required. Michelle Harris, Triangle's director of cyber recovery, emphasised that while organisations are investing heavily in AI for prevention, fewer are testing their recovery capabilities. She stressed that recovery readiness is now a critical business issue.

Key findings also showed that 51% of participating companies have a clean recovery environment, and 62% have a dedicated recovery team. Almost half of the companies tested or rehearsed their recovery within the last year. Harris pointed out that while threat awareness is growing, it hasn't yet translated into the right kind of action. She cited the National Cyber Security Centre's shift from prevention to recovery as an example, suggesting that many organisations still focus primarily on prevention.

As cyberattacks become more sophisticated, businesses must adopt a proactive approach and test their recovery processes regularly. Mature cyber recovery capabilities enable organisations to know exactly what data to recover, where to recover to, and the time it will take, thus minimizing guesswork during a breach. The issue is particularly relevant in Ireland, where the Eir Business Hidden Cost of Cyber Risk report revealed that cyberattacks cost small and medium-sized enterprises up to €3.4bn annually.

The report highlighted that frequent, day-to-day disruptions are a major source of these costs, underscoring the need for robust cyber recovery strategies.