Global Data Protection Survey 2018

As a global leader in cyber protection, Acronis frequently conducts surveys of online consumers to gauge awareness of data threats and habits of data protection among everyday people. This year’s annual Global Data Protection Survey, which polled members of the general internet population from the U.S., U.K., Australia, Japan, Germany, France, Spain, and Singapore during August 2018, revealed some disconcerting trends.

Despite ongoing publicity of ransomware, wipers and other online threats, the majority of the public is completely unaware of the risks these dangers pose to their data. While the last year’s survey showed that roughly half of the respondents (49.3 percent) knew about ransomware such as WannaCry and Petya, the 2018 findings showed that only 22.3 percent of those polled know about those ransomware threats.

While last year’s survey occurred in the wake of the WannaCry attack which could account for some additional awareness, a similar survey earlier this year found 58.2 percent of the public knew about ransomware threats. This newly discovered, precipitous drop in awareness is a major concern for those looking to help protect customer data from online criminals.

Combined with a few other data points from the survey, there is a concern that while people are relying on data more and more, they are not taking the precautions needed to keep it safe.

• 46.1 percent of respondents said they back up their computers That’s good news, as it’s up 2.8 percent from last year  
• 39 percent said that they or their family have experienced data loss Not so good news, since that’s an increase of 3.9 percent over 2017  
• 87.8 percent said that they would pay less than $50 to recover lost data This figure continues to climb from 81.5 percent in 2017 and 85.5 percent in March 2018

“Some might look that the public’s unwillingness to pay for recovery as an indication that they don’t value their data, but given how much people rely on their mobile devices and laptops every day, they clearly do. More people are backing up their data, however too much data is still lost” said John Zanni, President Acronis. “People don’t need to spend a lot of money on recovery when there is already an easy-to-use, efficient and secure solution that both prevents that data loss and is in their price range – Acronis True Image has them protected.”

The complete findings to the 2018 Global Data Protection Survey are as follows.