Cyber Resilience Starts with Updates: Why Delaying Software or Hardware Updates Could Cost You

Imagine arriving at work on Monday morning to discover your company has a frozen digital infrastructure. Customer data is inaccessible. Financial records are locked. Operations are halted. The cause? A ransomware attack that exploited an unpatched vulnerability in your system—a vulnerability that could have been eliminated with a software update you learned about three months ago but never implemented. 

This scenario plays out with alarming frequency across organizations worldwide. While cyberattacks grow increasingly sophisticated, many businesses continue treating vital upgrades to their software and hardware as optional maintenance rather than essential security measures. This is a dangerous tendency, especially given that organizations with a low patching cadence are almost seven times more likely to become ransomware victims¹. 

Your organization's data protection software and hardware upgrades represent the critical first line of defense against evolving cyber threats—the digital equivalent of reinforcing your perimeter before attackers discover weaknesses in your security infrastructure.  

Guess what – bad actors also target hardware and software that is out of compliance. If you’re risking an attack by using end of life hardware or software, you’re potentially sparking a resume-generating event.  

Without currently supported data protection hardware and software, your data protection strategy operates on borrowed time.  

How Modern Cyber Threats Target Outdated Backup and Recovery Systems 

Modern cyber threats differ fundamentally from attacks even five years ago. Today's attackers deploy sophisticated, multi-stage campaigns engineered to identify and exploit unpatched vulnerabilities across your infrastructure. Outdated systems become primary targets because they contain documented weaknesses that attackers can leverage with surgical precision. 

Ransomware operators have industrialized their approach to targeting legacy technology. Their methodology follows systematic processes: maintaining extensive vulnerability databases and deploying automated scanning tools that search for organizations running outdated systems.  

When these tools identify legacy technology in production, attackers exploit these weaknesses, encrypting business-critical data and demanding ransoms reaching millions of dollars. 

1 in 5 breaches came through an exposed security vulnerability² 

Your data protection framework weakens each day that these vulnerabilities remain unaddressed. Legacy systems create gaps in your security perimeter that sophisticated attackers actively seek. Without timely updates and upgrades, your backup and recovery capabilities may fail when needed, during an active breach or system compromise. 

When left unpatched, your protection tools become liabilities: outdated libraries with publicly disclosed vulnerabilities turn safeguards into fresh attack paths. Cyber resilience demands disciplined upkeep across software, firmware, and hardware, so backups stay trustworthy, and recoveries hold under pressure. Current releases almost always include library updates. When a new common vulnerability (CVE) is disclosed, new releases deliver targeted patches to close the exploit window fast.  

Why Organizations Fall Behind on Data Protection Updates

The barriers to implementing timely data protection updates stem from the operational realities facing IT departments. Staff reductions leave teams operating at minimum capacity, forcing prioritization of system uptime over security updates.  

Shrinking or stagnant IT budgets create difficult choices between maintaining existing capabilities and investing in new security measures. These challenges transform updates and upgrades from urgent data protection requirements into perpetually deferred tasks.

When IT and finance teams decide to try to stretch just one more year of use out of a hardware system that’s out of compliance, consider the cost of a hardware failure or ransomware attack may be much worse than this year’s budget savings.

Sometimes complacency infiltrates IT departments and executive leadership alike. The "if it isn't broken, don't fix it" mentality persists, with decision-makers assuming functional systems remain secure as threats evolve. This mindset misunderstands the dynamic nature of today's threat landscape, where protected systems become vulnerable targets as new exploits emerge.  

Your data protection strategy requires continuous adaptation—yesterday's secure configuration becomes tomorrow's vulnerability. 

Hidden Costs of Postponing Data Protection Software and Hardware Updates

• System performance deterioration is creating productivity drags across departments.
• Compatibility issues between updated and legacy systems are causing unexpected disruptions.
• Unsupported tools are becoming security liabilities within the infrastructure.
• Cascading system failures are bringing critical business operations to a standstill
• Increased remediation costs far exceeding the price of timely updates.
• Compromised data protection capabilities when recovery systems fail during critical incidents. 

The Risk Equation: How Do Outdated Systems Jeopardize Data Protection?

Data Integrity Under Threat

Outdated software and hardware create fundamental vulnerabilities that undermine your data protection strategies. These systems compromise the essential pillars of effective data resilience: accessibility, security, and recoverability.  

When business-critical systems operate on outdated platforms, your data becomes vulnerable to external threats and internal system failures.

The consequences manifest in unexpected ways. Let's use an example of a data protection infrastructure to showcase some of them. 

• Compatibility issues emerge when modern backup applications interface with legacy systems, creating data silos that fragment information landscapes and introduce recovery failures.
• Security tools lose effectiveness against evolving threats when they lack current updates, leaving your backed-up data vulnerable to encryption by ransomware. Since most ransomware attacks now target backups, keeping these risks in mind is essential.
• Cascading failures occur when outdated components fail, triggering domino effects across interconnected technology ecosystems and potentially corrupting backup repositories. 

Your data protection strategy depends on every component functioning when everything else fails. Outdated systems may introduce weak links that risk compromising the entire chain, from initial backup through final recovery. Without current software and hardware, your organization risks discovering that backups are corrupted, incomplete, or inaccessible precisely when recovery becomes critical.

And it's not just about ransomware scenarios. An outdated system can become a source of data loss when it fails to properly process data or interact with other systems within the infrastructure. 

The IT Budget Paradigm: Short-Term Savings vs. Long-Term Costs

The false economy of delaying upgrades becomes evident when examining the total cost of ownership across your technology stack. While postponing data protection updates may preserve some quarterly budget spend, the long-term financial implications devastate operations and data protection capabilities.  

Data breaches from unpatched vulnerabilities cost organizations millions in incident response, forensic investigation, legal fees, and regulatory penalties. System failures translate directly to operational downtime, as per-outage losses can range from at least $10,000 to over $1,000,000³. Customer trust erosion—an intangible asset built over the years—disappears after a single incident where data protection measures fail.

Balancing innovation with cost-efficiency represents a fundamental requirement for maintaining uninterrupted data protection. Strategic investments in timely upgrades serve as insurance against catastrophic losses, protecting both your data and your business continuity plans.  

The cost of prevention pales compared to the expense of recovery, especially when outdated systems compromise one's ability to restore operations after an incident. 

Does Your Cyber Insurance Actually Cover Unpatched Systems?

Unpatched Software = Invalid Coverage

Many organizations invest significantly in cyber insurance policies, believing they've transferred digital risk to insurers. Policy examination reveals a different reality: cyber insurance policies often require organizations to maintain up-to-date systems as a fundamental condition of coverage. This requirement determines whether claims receive approval when attacks compromise your data protection measures.

The implications for data protection strategies are severe: organizations failing to implement necessary patches discover that insurance claims have been denied after suffering attacks.  

Most insurance providers view unpatched systems as negligence, comparable to leaving physical premises unsecured.  

Even if you currently don’t have cyber insurance coverage, maintaining up-to-date systems is still an investment in the future when your organization might seek coverage.

Below are some of the policy requirements standard in cyber insurance: 

• Documented patch management processes with regular implementation schedules
• Evidence of vulnerability scanning and remediation programs
• Proof of regular system updates across all infrastructure components, including backup systems
• Verification of security testing following major updates
• Attestation that systems receive security patches within specified timeframes
• Demonstration that data protection systems maintain current security configurations 

The Bigger Picture: Data Protection Compliance and Credibility

Data protection software and hardware updates extend beyond security considerations. They maintain regulatory compliance, preserve market credibility, and ensure that data protection measures meet industry standards.  

Regulatory frameworks across industries mandate timely patching and system updates as baseline security requirements. Organizations falling behind face security risks, regulatory penalties, failed audits, and loss of essential certifications.

This compliance imperative impacts cyber insurance eligibility and your ability to demonstrate adequate data protection measures to regulators. Organizations must demonstrate an ongoing commitment to maintaining secure, updated systems throughout their infrastructure, including all data protection and backup components.

Regular updates directly strengthen your data protection framework by ensuring compliance with evolving regulatory requirements for data handling and security. Current systems implement the latest protection standards mandated by regulations and industry-specific frameworks, helping you avoid costly penalties while safeguarding sensitive information. 

How Does Streamlining Infrastructure Strengthen Cyber Resilience?

Fusing Functionality and Budget Responsibility

The path forward requires rethinking system updates and security infrastructure approaches to enhance data protection capabilities and improve cyber resilience. Strategic consolidation reduces complexity and cost while maintaining defense capabilities and optimizing resource allocation.  

This strategy eliminates redundant systems, reduces specialized training requirements, and simplifies management overhead, strengthening your overall security posture and data protection framework against evolving threats.

A unified approach minimizes technological silos for effective cyber resilience and comprehensive data protection. When backup and recovery solutions integrate across environments with automation for routine tasks, IT teams shift focus from managing disconnected point solutions to implementing strategic initiatives driving business value. 

This transformation converts updates from burdensome maintenance tasks into streamlined processes, enhancing operations and data protection effectiveness. That’s why 67% of organizations with streamlined IT infrastructure report improved operational efficiency4.  

Your data protection strategy benefits directly from infrastructure consolidation. Fewer systems mean fewer potential vulnerabilities, simplified update processes, and reduced chances of configuration errors that could compromise backup integrity. Streamlined infrastructure creates a stronger foundation for protecting critical business data against modern threats.

Modern data protection platforms integrate seamlessly with current operating systems, hypervisors, and applications, creating defensive layers that automatically identify and respond to emerging threats. By maintaining updated infrastructure, your organization enables these advanced protection mechanisms to function fully, providing comprehensive defense against data loss and corruption. 

Arcserve: Integrated Data Protection and Cyber Resilience Solution

Empowering IT Teams with Comprehensive Protection

Arcserve Unified Data Protection (UDP) delivers simple data protection, backup, and recovery, ransomware and pattern anomaly detection, and hybrid IT compatibility through a single integrated platform. This elimination of complexity accelerates critical updates and closes security gaps in fragmented environments. With advanced backup storage deduplication technology and near-zero RPO/RTO capabilities, Arcserve UDP drives comprehensive data protection while optimizing storage efficiency.

Organizations keen to protect their data from ransomware with an immutable backup strategy choose to add Arcserve Cyber Resilient Storage to their Arcserve UDP environment. Managed directly from the UDP console, Cyber Resilient Storage provides cloud, on-premises, or hybrid immutable backup options, creating another line of defense against ransomware.  

This approach addresses IT teams' core challenge: maintaining robust cyber defenses and data protection within limited budgets and staff resources. The integrated platform ensures components work together, eliminating compatibility issues and integration challenges plaguing organizations maintaining disparate systems from multiple vendors. Your data protection strategy gains strength through consolidation, reducing vulnerability points while enhancing recovery capabilities.

Over time many IT organizations have either inherited small backup products after absorbing and acquisition or from a “special project” demanded by a leader no longer with the business. Other teams purchased separate systems for cloud data versus on-premises data. This overhead of too many data protection systems causes risk and headache, especially when those systems go end of life and the data still needs to be protected.

With multiple paths to migrate older backup data and archives to Arcserve UDP, it is responsible and affordable to consolidate data backup to Arcserve UDP and protect data with Cyber Resilient Storage. You can eliminate the headache of out-of-date backup tools while also providing an immutable layer of data protection. 

Resiliency Built for Modern IT Challenges

Arcserve UDP helps organizations balance operational agility and budget responsibility, ensuring continuous cyber readiness and data protection while optimizing costs. The solution achieves security and affordability through intelligent design and strategic data protection infrastructure consolidation.

• Ease of Deployment: Single-pane-of-glass management reduces implementation time and training requirements
• Comprehensive Approach: Integrated backup, disaster recovery, and ransomware prevention in one solution
• Cloud, On-Premises, Immutable and Hybrid Protection: One single dropdown helps you choose where to send data backups. Choose regular cloud or on-premises storage, immutable cloud or on-premises storage, or hybrid approaches – all managed from one clear interface.  
• Proven Track Record: Trusted by thousands of organizations worldwide for reliable data protection 

Arcserve Upgrades and Consolidations Mean Increased Proactivity

When systematic software and hardware upgrades are aligned with Arcserve UDP, organizations transform reactive IT firefighting into proactive cyber resilience frameworks. This shift fundamentally changes organizational approaches to data protection and business continuity, converting potential disasters into manageable events. Your data protection strategy evolves from hoping backups work to knowing recovery succeeds. 

Reliable Cyber Resilience with Long-Term Solutions

Today’s busy IT organizations need simple, clear cyber resilience solutions that can be easily implemented and then relied on for years to come. Moving to a modern, supported platform provides peace of mind.  

Prioritizing software and hardware upgrades is essential for data protection in today's threat landscape. Neglecting upgrades compromises data protection capabilities, regulatory compliance, and insurance coverage.  

Every unpatched system or out-of-date appliance represents a potential entry point for attackers and a growing liability to your data protection framework.

Building robust cyber resilience requires organizational commitment to continuous modernization through honest infrastructure evaluation, identification of update protocol gaps, and investment in solutions that simplify your security posture while enhancing data protection effectiveness.

Strengthen cyber resilience with Arcserve UDP. Contact us if you have any questions or schedule a live demo of Arcserve UDP now. 

1. Bitsight, The Bitsight Security Ratings' Correlation to Ransomware, April 2024
2. 2025 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report
3. Cockroach Labs, The State of Resilience 2025, October 2024