Strengthening Public Sector Cyber Resilience with Druva GovCloud

The public sector faces an escalating threat from increasingly sophisticated ransomware attacks. Federal agencies, state governments, local municipalities, and educational institutions play a crucial role in ensuring public safety, essential services, and critical infrastructure. However, reliance on outdated IT systems, budgetary constraints, and evolving compliance mandates often leave these organizations exposed to cyber threats.

According to CrowdStrike’s 2025 Global Threat Report, ransomware attacks on government agencies surged by 50% year-over-year. The FBI’s 2023 IC3 report also ranks government organizations among the top three sectors most impacted by ransomware. While GovCloud environments, such as Microsoft 365 Government Community Cloud (GCC), GCC High, or Google Workspace for Government, are often viewed as more secure, they are not immune to these attacks. Limited visibility into ransomware incidents within these environments creates a false sense of security, potentially leaving critical systems vulnerable.

State and local governments, in particular, remain primary targets, often facing significant downtime, data loss, and disruptions to citizen services. Addressing these challenges requires more than basic compliance measures—it calls for a proactive and modern approach to cyber resilience. In this article, we examine the growing threat landscape, dispel the myth of invulnerability in GovCloud environments, and offer actionable strategies to strengthen cybersecurity. We’ll also highlight how solutions like Druva’s cloud-native platform can help public sector organizations protect their critical data and maintain operational continuity in today’s high-risk environment.

Public Sector Threat Landscape

Public sector organizations, despite their essential role, are often at the center of crosshairs for ransomware and other cyber threats due to multiple factors:

• Legacy IT Systems: Many public sector entities still rely on outdated infrastructure, making them vulnerable to modern cyber threats.

• Resource Constraints: Limited budgets and overextended IT teams exacerbate vulnerabilities.

• Integration of Cloud Solutions: The shift to cloud platforms such as Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace brings convenience and collaboration, but it also expands potential vulnerabilities if not paired with strong security measures.

Rising Costs of Ransomware

The financial implications of ransomware attacks are staggering. A 2024 State of Ransomware Report from Sophos highlights the following statistics:

• 68% of central/federal government organizations were hit by ransomware — the highest across all industries.

• State/local governments had the lowest attack rate (34%), but the highest encryption rate (98%) when attacked.

• Median ransom payment for both central and state/local government was $6.6 million — among the highest across sectors.

• 49% of public sector attacks began with compromised credentials, the most common root cause for government organizations.

Beyond these figures, the true cost of an attack includes regulatory penalties, reputational damage, and lost public confidence. As organizations increasingly handle sensitive public data, the stakes have never been higher.

A ransomware attack doesn’t just lead to financial losses; it jeopardizes personal information, undermines trust, and can lead to severe regulatory penalties. Protecting public data is critical to safeguarding both individual privacy and broader confidence in digital ecosystems.

According to Comparitech, ransomware attacks have had a devastating impact on government entities. On average, these attacks lead to 27.8 days of downtime, costing an estimated $83,600 per day. Since 2018, the total financial toll has exceeded $2.2 billion, highlighting the urgent need for robust cybersecurity measures.

Beyond these figures, the ripple effects include significant reputational damage and a loss of public confidence, further emphasizing the need for robust protections.

Strategies to Enhance Cyber Resilience in the Public Sector

To counter these risks, public sector organizations need to adopt a proactive, multi-layered approach to cybersecurity. Here are the core strategies:

1. Implement Robust Data Protection Measures

Effective data protection is the foundation of cyber resilience. This includes:

• Data Encryption: Ensure data is encrypted both in transit and at rest, leveraging FIPS 140-2 validated encryption methods.

• Access Controls: Enforce strict authentication protocols, including multi-factor authentication (MFA) and role-based access controls.

• Immutable Backups: Maintain air-gapped, immutable backups that ransomware attacks cannot alter or delete.

Foundational data security is key as threats like ransomware continue to evolve. Explore Druva’s security features for hybrid workloads and end-user data here.

2. Modernize Legacy IT Systems with Cloud Solutions

Legacy IT infrastructure is not equipped to handle the challenges of modern ransomware. Transitioning to Druva, a cloud-native platform, offers numerous advantages:

• Elimination of hardware dependencies, reducing costs, and operational complexity.

• FedRAMP-Moderate Authorization and StateRAMP certification ensure compliance with federal and state standards.

• Scalability to support growing data needs without hardware refresh cycles.

Legacy, hardware-based backup approaches, like Veeam, are expensive and risky given today’s growing cyber threats. Druva enables enterprises to shift to the cloud with ease, secure their workloads with just one solution, and cut costs up to 40% in the process — see how.

3. Leverage Advanced Security Tools

Stay ahead of attackers with advanced technologies:

• Anomaly Detection: Identify and act on unusual patterns, such as unauthorized access attempts, with AI-based monitoring tools.

• Ransomware Protection: Use automated recovery protocols to detect infected files, quarantine threats, and restore clean data without delays.

• Security Tool Integration: Integrate backups with Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solutions to proactively respond to threats.

Look for a cloud-native solution, like Druva, offering a variety of security integrations.

4. Reduce Risks by Reducing Attack Surface 

When primary systems fail, resilient recovery is essential. Replacing legacy infrastructure with a secure, SaaS-based solution like Druva guarantees: 

• Safe off-site data storage.

• Automated backups with instant recovery capabilities.

• Reduced recovery costs and downtime during a cyber incident.

Understand why Cyber Recovery with Druva is different, and Explore Druva’s accelerated ransomware recovery capabilities.

Real-World Examples of Cyber Resilience 

1. State of California: The state achieved a 10.5x increase in global storage savings and reduced backup management complexity by 50% after implementing Druva. These improvements enabled seamless service delivery while minimizing costs. Read the full story

2. Ellington Public Schools: This institution saw an 81% reduction in total ownership costs compared to previous solutions. Druva provided reliable backup management and reduced recovery time for virtual machines to just three hours. Read the full story

3. Angelo State University: Adopting Druva allowed the university to spend 10x less time managing Microsoft 365 data. The cloud-native solution streamlined operations and ensured robust data protection. Read the full story

Druva GovCloud: Advanced Protection for Public Sector Organizations

Druva GovCloud delivers a robust, secure, and compliant data protection solution designed specifically for federal, state, local, and public sector organizations. Druva helps State, Local, and Education (SLED) organizations globally prevent and protect against ransomware attacks while keeping data secure, minimizing downtime, and reducing TCO by up to 40%. Key benefits include:

• Immutable, Air-Gapped Backups: Safeguard against ransomware by preventing unauthorized access, encryption, or deletion of critical backup data.

• FedRAMP and StateRAMP Authorization: Meet stringent compliance requirements with Druva’s fully authorized, SaaS-based FedRAMP and StateRAMP solutions.

• FIPS-140-2 Validated Encryption: Ensure military-grade protection for data in transit and storage.

• Simplified Compliance Management: Streamline adherence to GDPR, CCPA, FedRAMP, and other global regulations.

• Cost-Effective Operations: Eliminate hardware dependencies and reduce operational costs by up to 40%.

• Multi-Cloud Support: Securely manage data across AWS, Microsoft Azure, and hybrid environments with ease.

• Scalability and Flexibility: A fully SaaS-based architecture allows agencies to scale on demand without additional infrastructure.

With Druva, public sector organizations can enhance their cyber resilience, ensuring critical data is protected and recoverable, while reducing administrative burdens. Want to learn how Druva can support your organization? Check out Druva's solutions tailored for the public sector.

Take Control of Your Cyber Resilience Today

The growing complexity and frequency of cyberattacks require a proactive approach to data protection. Federal, state, and local organizations can no longer rely on legacy systems alone.

By implementing robust data protection measures, modernizing IT infrastructure, and leveraging Druva GovCloud, public sector agencies can minimize downtime, maintain compliance, and ensure mission-critical data remains secure. 

• Explore Druva for SLED Agencies

• Learn about Druva’s FedRAMP Solutions

• Discover Public Sector Solutions in EMEA and APAC