UK Companies Paying the Ransom
Posted by: Timothy Weaver on 09/09/2016 12:09 PM
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Security firm Trend Micro asked UK users about ransomware and found that 74 percent of UK organizations claimed they would never pay a ransom.
The survey also found that only 45% of victims got their files back. The numbers go on to report that in the last 24 months, 44 percent of UK businesses have been infected by ransomware. 27% had been infected more than once with some unfortunate companies being infected as much as 5 times.
Bharat Mistry, cyber-security consultant at Trend Micro, explains: “When faced with a ransom situation, most organizations simply cannot afford to part with the encrypted data and are forced to fork out the requested amount, often more than once. Caving in to the demands of cyber-extortionists only reassure them of their strategy and perpetuates the threat cycle. That's why companies must adequately protect themselves against ransomware and avoid playing by attacker's terms.”
The average amount of the ransom was £540. However, 20% of companies were ransomed for more than £1000.
It is interesting to note that 66% refused to pay up because, as a rule, they don't bargain with criminals. Of that, 60% were able to restore their files using backups and 26% felt that the encrypted data wasn't worth paying up for.
“Ransomware has completely dominated the current threat landscape,” added Bharat Mistry. “During the first part of 2016, we blocked and detected almost 80 million ransomware threats and identified 79 new ransomware families – comparing to 29 in the whole of 2015. That's a 179 percent increase. Quite a few of those were built with routines that are designed to attack enterprise machine and endpoints. It's time companies take heed."
Source: SCMagazine
The survey also found that only 45% of victims got their files back. The numbers go on to report that in the last 24 months, 44 percent of UK businesses have been infected by ransomware. 27% had been infected more than once with some unfortunate companies being infected as much as 5 times.
Bharat Mistry, cyber-security consultant at Trend Micro, explains: “When faced with a ransom situation, most organizations simply cannot afford to part with the encrypted data and are forced to fork out the requested amount, often more than once. Caving in to the demands of cyber-extortionists only reassure them of their strategy and perpetuates the threat cycle. That's why companies must adequately protect themselves against ransomware and avoid playing by attacker's terms.”
The average amount of the ransom was £540. However, 20% of companies were ransomed for more than £1000.
It is interesting to note that 66% refused to pay up because, as a rule, they don't bargain with criminals. Of that, 60% were able to restore their files using backups and 26% felt that the encrypted data wasn't worth paying up for.
“Ransomware has completely dominated the current threat landscape,” added Bharat Mistry. “During the first part of 2016, we blocked and detected almost 80 million ransomware threats and identified 79 new ransomware families – comparing to 29 in the whole of 2015. That's a 179 percent increase. Quite a few of those were built with routines that are designed to attack enterprise machine and endpoints. It's time companies take heed."
Source: SCMagazine
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