According to recent research by Cybersecurity firm Sophos, the average cost of recovery from a ransomware attack for businesses in the Asia Pacific and Japan has more than doubled in the last 12 months. The average bill for rectifying a ransomware attack (considering all the downtime, device cost, ransom paid, employee time etc) was US$1.8 million.
The research also showed the average ransom paid by organisations was US$123,634, while only 5% of the organisations managed to get back all of their data after paying a ransom, and 19% getting back only half of their data.
Additionally, while the number of organisations that experienced a ransomware attack fell from 53% in 2020 to 39% in 2021, the new survey results reveal upward trends, particularly in terms of the impact of a ransomware attack. The research found the average cost of remediating a ransomware attack grew by more than US$1 million.
Chester Wisniewski, principal research scientist of Sophos advised “the findings confirm the brutal truth that when it comes to ransomware, it doesn’t pay to pay,” and “despite more organisations opting to pay a ransom, only a tiny minority of those who paid got back all their data”.
Not only does ransomware have a huge financial impact but recovering from a ransomware attack can take years and is much more than just decrypting and restoring the data.
Wisniewski also advised it is more important than ever to protect against adversaries at the door before they get a chance to take hold and unfold their increasingly multi-faceted attacks.
Please contact us to discuss how best to protect your business from ransomware and cyberattacks.
References :
https://securitybrief.com.au/story/ransomware-recovery-costs-more-than-doubled-in-past-year
https://secure2.sophos.com/en-us/medialibrary/pdfs/whitepaper/sophos-state-of-ransomware-2021-wp.pdf
