• Ransomware attacks continue to grow in their frequency, severity, sophistication, and costs to organizations. Already a highly imminent threat to address, ransomware has been exacerbated in its severity by the COVID-19 pandemic. Cybercriminals are seeking to capitalize on new security vulnerabilities resulting from the shift to remote working, as well as the global need for information and treatment (e.g., launching coronavirus-related phishing attacks and targeting healthcare and medical research organizations). 
• Against this backdrop, organizations increasingly understand that it is not a matter of “if” they will experience a ransomware attack, but “when.” An effective data backup and recovery strategy is crucial to deterring hackers from planting ransomware, avoiding having to pay ransoms, and to avoiding data loss and lengthy downtime (resulting in expensive costs, including governmental fines and a loss of credibility, on top of ransom fees that may have been paid). This is especially true as ransomware variants have evolved to focus on infiltrating the backup environment. Effective data protection also determines how quickly an organization can get back up and running again following a ransomware attack. Even if a customer chooses to pay the ransom, typically they are simply dumped a text file with encryption keys that each have to be manually typed into various system consoles until they are unlocked, without copy and paste functionality. This is a laborious and time-consuming process.