October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, which is an effort to improve online security for everyone, all over the world. As part of this initiative, 11:11 Systems is releasing our first-ever cyber trends report to shed light on the challenges and opportunities in today’s complex digital landscape.
Cybersecurity, cyber recovery, and cyber resilience have never been more critical. As our reliance on technology deepens, the threats we face grow even more sophisticated and widespread. These cyber trends are no longer just a problem for IT departments. It affects every level of an organization. To understand how businesses are navigating this new reality, we surveyed more than 800 senior IT leaders from around the world. Here’s a little bit of what we found.
Cyber attacks are more frequent and costly than you think.
We say it all the time: it’s not if, but when. And it has never been more accurate. Our survey revealed that 82% of companies experienced a significant cyber attack in the past year, and a staggering 57% were hit two or more times. These aren’t minor incidents. They’re major disruptions with substantial financial consequences.
For nearly 20% of the organizations we surveyed, just one hour of downtime resulted in losses of more than half a million dollars (US). While these figures are alarmingly high, many experts believe they are conservative. For example, the IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report from 2025 found the global average cost of a data breach to be $4.4 million. This highlights a dangerous gap between perception and reality. Despite the clear and present danger, a surprising level of overconfidence persists among IT leaders.
AI is reshaping the battlefield.
The complexity of planning for cyber incident recovery is the single biggest challenge facing IT leaders today. Adding to this complexity is the rapid emergence of artificial intelligence (AI). While a powerful tool for businesses, AI is also being weaponized by cybercriminals.
Our cyber trends survey found that AI-driven attacks are the number one concern for IT cybersecurity leaders.
- 74% of respondents believe using AI in their own business could make them more vulnerable to an attack.
- 66% are concerned that AI makes it easier for bad actors to attack infrastructure and target employees.
- 45% of companies have already experienced AI-driven phishing attacks.
AI enables cybercriminals to launch faster, larger-scale, and more effective attacks. It helps them analyze vulnerabilities to deploy targeted ransomware and create advanced malware that adapts to security measures. AI also enhances social engineering attacks, with tools that craft highly personalized phishing emails or even deepfake audio and video to deceive employees.
Clean room recovery plays a key role.
Our cyber trends survey also found that as attacks become more sophisticated, recovery methods must evolve. One of the most effective strategies is clean room recovery, which involves restoring IT systems in a completely isolated and contamination-free environment. Instead of rebooting potentially compromised machines, this process rebuilds your digital infrastructure in an environment removed from production IT.
Why is this so important?
- It prevents reinfection: By starting fresh, you ensure that your environment can’t be corrupted by malware or hidden backdoors left by attackers.
- It guarantees system integrity: Attackers can infect backups that lie dormant for weeks. Clean room recovery rebuilds everything from scratch, eliminating the risk of reintroducing old malware.
- It enhances incident response: Keeping the recovery environment separate preserves forensic evidence, helping security teams analyze the attack without contaminating the restored systems.
Given its importance, it’s no surprise that IT leaders place a priority on this capability. At 11:11 Systems, we’ve responded to this need by offering a solution: 11:11 Cyber Recovery Platform, including our fully managed clean room recovery service, ensures our customers can recover with confidence.
Build a resilient future.
The cybersecurity landscape is more challenging than ever, but the tools and strategies to combat threats are also advancing. Our cyber trends survey revealed that while approaches to cyber resilience vary, there is a consensus on the importance of testing and investment. 70% of organizations test their cyber incident recovery plans annually, and an overwhelming 96% plan to invest in cyber incident recovery in the next 12 months.
When selecting a solution, IT leaders overwhelmingly prioritized support for public cloud workloads and the ability to customize the solution for application-level recovery. This reflects the reality of modern IT environments, where data lives both on-premises and in the cloud.
11:11’s comprehensive cyber resilience framework goes beyond just security. It requires a multi-layered approach that includes:
- Preventive security to identify vulnerabilities and cultivate a security-first culture.
- Reactive controls so you can respond and recover, even if the worst-case scenario happens.
- Consultation and expertise to guide you and support you through the known and unknown.
By combining proven technology, tried-and-true processes, and the deep expertise of knowledgeable specialists, your organization can move from a state of uncertainty to resilience, fully prepared for whatever comes next.
Take the next step.
Navigating these cyber trends and the complexities of cybersecurity require a proactive and strategic approach. Download the 11:11 Cyber Trends Report – 2025 to get the complete picture of the state of today’s IT challenges. Or hear insights from our internal experts as they take a deep dive into the findings during our recent webinar.
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