Veeam Survey Finds a Gap Between Cyber-Recovery Confidence and Outcomes
Summary
Veeam’s survey of 900+ security leaders found that confidence in cyber recovery often exceeds reported outcomes: ransomware-affected organizations frequently failed to recover all data, while many respondents cited gaps in AI risk visibility and governance.
Key points
- Among organizations that experienced a cyber incident in the past year, 42% reported customer or constituent disruption, 41% financial loss or revenue impact, and 38% extended downtime.
- Among ransomware-affected organizations, 56% said attackers encrypted or exfiltrated data; 28% fully recovered affected data, while 44% recovered less than 75%.
- 43% of respondents said AI adoption was outpacing their ability to secure data and models; 42% had limited visibility into organizational AI tools or models, and 40% said policies did not yet address AI-specific risks.
- 48% of respondents said data loss prevention controls were in place. The report found that organizations with DLP reported less limited AI visibility and less AI adoption outpacing security controls than those without it.
- The report links stronger recovery outcomes with cross-functional ownership, enforceable AI governance controls, regular communication of cyber risk to business leaders, and recovery-readiness metrics.
- Organizations that increased cybersecurity budgets were more likely to report full ransomware data recovery than those without budget growth (40% versus 16%); the report notes this is correlation, not causation.
Article Details
- Publisher
- Veeam
- Report Period
- 2026 report; survey dates not stated
- Scope
- Survey and interviews on cyber resilience, recovery, data governance, and AI risk.
- Sample Size
- More than 900 security leaders across C-suite and frontline security roles.
- Key Statistics
- 90% of respondents said they were very to extremely confident they could recover from a cyber incident within defined recovery time objectives.
- Nearly 3 in 10 organizations reported a cyber incident in the preceding 12 months that resulted in data loss, downtime, or business disruption.
- Among organizations hit by ransomware in the preceding 12 months, 56% said attackers encrypted or exfiltrated data; 28% fully recovered affected data.
- 43% of respondents said AI tool adoption was outpacing their ability to secure data and models.
- 49% of organizations increased cybersecurity budgets year over year; 51% stayed flat or decreased.
- Recommendations
- Improve visibility into enterprise data and AI risks, including the AI tools and models in use.
- Back security and AI governance policies with enforceable controls and validation, such as data loss prevention controls.
- Test and validate recovery capabilities under realistic conditions.
- Use cross-functional governance involving IT, security, data leaders, and business stakeholders.
- Communicate cyber risk to business leaders regularly and track recovery-readiness KPIs.