Cyber risks pose an ever-growing threat, with attacks steadily increasing in frequency, severity and financial impact. As per reports, cybercrime now costs the global economy over $1 trillion annually. To stay resilient, holistic security coverage is no longer an option but an imperative.
This article will provide cybersecurity specialists, IT managers and tech enthusiasts an in-depth overview of Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud – an integrated cyber protection solution. We will analyze its capabilities to safeguard systems and data, study how it compares with alternatives, and outline why robust precautions matter more than ever today.
The Rising Menace of Cyber Attacks
Before exploring how Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud helps organizations stay protected, let‘s examine why strong defensive measures have become crucial:
Financial and Reputational Impact
- The average financial loss caused by ransomware attacks alone shot up by nearly 60% to $170,000 between 2020 and 2021 according to research [1].
- Top breaches like the 2021 LinkedIn and Facebook leaks impacted over 1 billion users combined, underlining increasing data exfiltration risks.
- Around 61% of SMBs hit by successful cyber attacks end up going out of business within 6 months as they struggle to recover [2].
- Between lawsuits, recovering compromised systems, loss of intellectual property and reputational damage, the overall cost of data breaches can easily cross millions.
Evolution of Threat Vectors
Today‘s cyber threats are more persistent, stealthy and scalable than ever with attackers leveraging automation, machine learning and other cutting-edge techniques to encrypt systems, evade detection and exfiltrate sensitive data through backdoors. Some concerning shifts include:
- Ransomware attacks are growing more targeted – between 2020 and 2021, attacks on large enterprises shot up by nearly 240% [3].
- Malware operators have begun to zero-in on cloud environments using automated discovery scripts that scrape public cloud databases to identify insecure configurations.
- Data suggests a massive 650% annual increase in supply chain attacks targeting trusted third-party vendor applications and networks to access valuable customer data [4].
Overwhelmed Defenses
As the volume and sophistication of threats accelerate exponentially, organizations are struggling to keep up:
- An industry analysis [5] highlights that nearly 37% of malware goes undetected for over a week, indicating gaps in threat detection.
- With remote access and cloud adoption on the rise, shadow IT and risky user behavior often evade existing security tools and policies.
- Running dozens of disjointed point solutions leads to systems with security gaps or redundancies along with higher overhead for IT teams.
This is where consolidating protection via Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud helps strengthen defenses.
Why Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud Matters
Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud integrates backup, anti-malware, vulnerability assessments, patch management, remote data wipe and recovery tools into one unified platform powered by AI and automation.
Benefits include:
Additionally, by providing uniform security coverage, the solution addresses the following digital infrastructure protection needs:
1. Safeguarding Hybrid Infrastructure
With data increasingly distributed across on-premise servers, private/public cloud platforms and SaaS applications, securingsensitive information is becoming harder for most security tools limited to protecting just a single environment.
Acronis provides consistent antimalware, activity monitoring and access controls across all endpoints via an integrated console letting admins maintain visibility and control.
2. Protecting Remote/Mobile Access
2020 saw mobile devices overtake PCs as the primary vector for malware infections [6]. Additionally, device thefts/loss also pose confidential data leak risks.
Acronis allows securely erasing any endpoint remotely while stopping device fingerprinting attacks. Backups also minimize disruption from lost devices.
3. Streamlining Overhead for IT Teams
With integrated functionality managed via one portal, Acronis saves admins time otherwise spent coordinating and maintaining individual point solutions.
Automated backups, AI-based anomaly detection and one-click recovery further lighten administrative workloads.
Now let‘s analyze some key capabilities:
Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud Capabilities Deep Dive
AI-powered Cyber Protection
At its core, Acronis leverages AI models trained on large volumes of threat data to instantly identify malicious code and activity patterns. This allows stopping zero-day malware, exploits and ransomware variants that traditional signature-based antivirus tools miss during the vulnerability window before software patches are released and signatures updated.
Additionally, integration with running applications via APIs and behavioral analysis provides deeper context to detect sophisticated threats focused on evasion using fileless or non-malware techniques often missed by network security tools merely scanning traffic passively.
Automated Backups
While recovering from incidents is essential, prevention is ideal. Hence backups in Acronis allow restoring data to a pre-infection state in case threats get through.
Quick cloud backups combine an on-premise copy for low RTO and an additional cloud copy to mitigate site disasters. Point-in-time recovery from multiple previous versions provides flexibility.
The underlying platform also eliminates backup windows and optimizes storage via deduplication and compression.
Unified Management
Trying to coordinate various tools, servers and consoles invariably leaves gaps or sucks up significant mindshare from IT personnel trying to string disparate systems together.
Acronis provides integrated management and reporting with an easy-to-use web portal for monitoring threats, user activity, controlled points of entry and other aspects across entire digital infrastructure securely.
This saves time otherwise spent toggling between solutions and lightens cognitive load.
How Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud Compares with Leading Providers
Below we compare Acronis with top providers BeyondTrust, Kaspersky, Sophos, Fortinet and more based on key criteria:
1. Delivery Models Supported
Acronis edges out rivals with support various implementations suiting different business needs and legacy environments.
2. Platforms/Endpoints Protected
Acronis ties with Sophos in providing complete cross-platform protection covering common attack vectors.
3. Core Functionality
While missing email security, Acronis does pack unified backup, AV and patch management among other modules class-leading solutions offer piecemeal.
4. Ransomware Recovery Capabilities
With varied mechanisms from eliminating backup data corruption to blockchain-based verification safeguards, Acronis leads rivals in anti-ransomware coverage.
In summary, Acronis distinguishes itself via integration blending backup tools with proven AV technology and zero trust security – making it ideal for consolidated enterprise-grade protection.
Now we outline how getting started is quick and straightforward.
Getting Started with Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud
Signing up via this link allows accessing a free trial to evaluate capabilities using your own infrastructure without commitment.
Deployment takes less than 10 minutes by:
- Setting up online account
- Downloading and installing agent
- Logging into web portal
- Configuring backups remotely
Commercial pricing starts from $50 per device annually. Volume discounts available.
The Way Forward
Cyber risks will continue accelerating as connectivity and accessibility of systems increase globally. And new attack techniques will keep emerging to circumvent traditional security tools through evasion and stealth.
Hence consolidating protection via solutions that integrate proven yet evolving techniques in detection, response and recovery is prudent. Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud brings together essential capabilities like advanced anti-malware, patch management and blockchain-based data authenticity certification with innovative tech like AI and cloud-based management to future-proof defenses from impending threats.
Try out Acronis via this free trial link to evaluate if it meets your organization‘s requirements. Stay safe!
Sources
- Coveware Global Ransomware Threat Report
- Lucidchart SMB Cybersecurity Statistics
- SonicWall 2022 Cyber Threat Report
- BlueVoyant Supply Chain Report
- Microsoft – Why Ransomware Attacks Keep Succeeding
- Purplesec Mobile Risk Report
