  We obtain a polynomial-time 17/12-approximation algorithm for the
minimum-cost 2-vertex-connected spanning subgraph problem, restricted to graphs
of minimum degree at least 3. Our algorithm uses the framework of
ear-decompositions for approximating connectivity problems, which was
previously used in algorithms for finding the smallest 2-edge-connected
spanning subgraph by Cheriyan, Seb\H{o} and Szigeti (SIAM J.Discrete Math.
2001) who gave a 17/12-approximation algorithm for this problem, and by
Seb\H{o} and Vygen (Combinatorica 2014), who improved the approximation ratio
to 4/3.
