Dell data-protection report adds genAI to threat mix

Dell Technologies has released the latest edition of its Global Data Protection Index (GDPI), which questions enterprises about the potential impact of generative AI on the security threat landscape and emerging data protection requirements.

Public clouds and cyberattacks remain the leading areas of concern when it comes to data protection, according to the GDPI. As many at 76% of organizations are worried that their existing data protection measures are unable to cope with ransomware threats, and 66% are not very confident that they could reliably recover in the event of a destructive cyberattack.

Enterprise concerns include security of remote workers

IT professionals are concerned about a number of issues, starting with remote workers. The survey found that 83% of organizations believe that the rise in remote workers, fueled by the pandemic and still prevalent today, has increased their exposure to data loss from a cyberattack. That 83% sentiment is up from 76% in Dell’s last report.

Multicloud is still the preferred strategy for organizations for many reasons, not the least of which is avoiding vendor lock in. But data protection in such environments continues to be a major concern, with 79% of IT decision-makers saying they are not very confident that their organization can protect all the data across their public clouds.

Ransomware also remains on the radar of IT managers, with 75% of organizations concerned that their existing data protection measures may not effectively handle ransomware threats. Despite this concern, 59% of organizations invest more in cyber prevention than cyber recovery, highlighting a potential imbalance in strategies. We all know the cliché that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, but with the rise of successful attacks, there needs to be greater investment in recovery.

Dell found that organizations are not sitting still when it comes to cyber resiliency. Among the findings, 50% have brought in professional services to bolster resources, 52% conducting regular cyber recovery testing, and 42% have deployed a cyber vault with physical and logical separation from production data.

The generative AI variable

For the first time, the GDPI looked into the potential impact of generative AI on both the cyber threat landscape and future data protection requirements. According to the report, 52% believe genAI will provide an advantage to their organization’s cyber security posture, and 27% feel genAI will initially provide an advantage to cyber criminals.

In the survey, 88% of companies also said that genAI is likely to generate large volumes of new data and increase the value of certain data types. So companies will have to include that data in their future data protection strategies.

Dell’s GDPI surveyed 1,500 IT and IT security decision makers from a range of public and private industries worldwide in September and October 2023.