In collaboration withPresidio
For many years, business continuity strategies focused on preparing for unusual events such as hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, or local power failures. To get ready for these infrequent calamities, IT departments created playbooks, conducted yearly drills, hoped for the best, and wished they wouldn’t have to enact their plans.
Recently, a more constant danger has arisen. Cyber incidents, especially ransomware, have become increasingly prevalent—and frequently, more destructive—than physical calamities. A recent poll of over 500 CISOs revealed that nearly three-quarters (72%) reported that their organization had faced ransomware in the last year. Earlier in 2025, ransomware attack instances on businesses hit unprecedented levels.
Mark Vaughn, senior director of the virtualization practice at Presidio, has experienced the trend personally. “When I present at events, I ask the audience, ‘How many people have been affected?’ For disaster recovery, typically, only a few hands go up,” he states. “However, a little over a year ago, I inquired how many individuals in the room had been impacted by ransomware, and nearly two-thirds of the hands were raised.”
This content was generated by Insights, the custom content division of MIT Technology Review. It was not crafted by MIT Technology Review’s editorial team.
This content was researched, created, and penned by human authors, editors, analysts, and illustrators. This encompasses the crafting of surveys and the gathering of data for surveys. AI tools utilized were restricted to secondary production processes that underwent thorough human scrutiny.
