Ransomware Threat Report 2021

Ransomware. By far one of the biggest online threats to businesses over the course of the last 2 years… And it’s a threat which is growing increasingly more in sophistication and frequency.

According to the recent Sophos State of Ransomware report, it’s estimated that 35% of UK businesses have been victim of a ransomware attack in the last year. Worldwide, the countries that were the most vulnerable were India, Austria and the US, all of which reported that over half of their organisations were subject to a ransomware breach.

Ransomware. By far one of the biggest online threats to businesses over the course of the last 2 years… And it’s a threat which is growing increasingly more in sophistication and frequency.

According to the recent Sophos State of Ransomware report, it’s estimated that 35% of UK businesses have been victim of a ransomware attack in the last year. Worldwide, the countries that were the most vulnerable were India, Austria and the US, all of which reported that over half of their organisations were subject to a ransomware breach.

Who Is Most at Risk?

In short – no-one is exempt. Whilst recently the cybersecurity community has seen an uptick in sophisticated attempts to internationally renowned, or larger companies, that does not mean that SMEs are any more secure. Last year, around 1 in 3 small organisations were targets of a ransomware attack.  The Sophos survey found that 75% of attacks were directed on companies with over 100 employees.

A recent finding from AllTek has cited that 88% of all ransomware attacks are on the healthcare industry; and with more money to be made from them in light of COVID-19, this is hardly surprising. In April 2021, newly-founded Reproductive Biology Associates (RBA), a fertility organisation based out of the US, was subject to a ransomware breach that compromised the full names, addresses, social security numbers, lab results, and even “information related to the handling of human tissue” of an estimated 38,000 patients.

Whilst healthcare may be amongst the most targeted, the sector is up there in the top 3 as one of the most able to prevent data encryption (65%). Worldwide, and according to the Sophos report, retail (44%), education (44%), business and professional services (42%) and central governments (40%) were those most frequently targeted by ransomware.

Paying Only Makes It Worse

More organisations are paying ransoms than in 2020 (up from 26% to 32%). Sophos found in their report that only 65% of the total data encrypted was actually restored to the business, a loss of 1/3 of ransomed data. Only 8% of information security decision makers reported recovering all of their encrypted data.

Aside from the likelihood that you’re paying the ransom, not knowing how much of your data will actually be recovered to you, there’s a wider incentive to not pay the crooks; ransomware is an ‘eco-system.’ In the dark spots of the web where cyber criminals anonymously come together to launch their malicious campaigns, everything is fuelled by the financial gain. The criminals need the money to perpetrate their activities, and continually work on more sophisticated attempts; often the companies paying said ransoms are actually, inadvertently, sponsoring the next attempts of the cyber actors.

Extortion Attempts

The industries which were found to have paid ransoms in the majority of cases were oil and gas, local governments and education. The majority of extortion attempts happened upon the oil and gas industry, where around 7% of all ransomware incidents do not hold data hostage, but still demand a ransom. Of these particular sectors, data or company IP fallen into the wrong hands can have devastating consequences to business financials and future growth and expansion.

How Much is a Ransomware Attack Going to Cost?

Since 2020, the costs associated with a ransomware attack have shot through the roof, and in 2021 have reached a figure more than double of the year prior, $760,000 to $1,850,000 per attack. This amount takes into consideration the resultant downtime, people overheads, device costings, ransom demand, and any associated fines as a result of the breach. This number, predictably, is set to rise; with 65% of companies that have not yet been victim to a breach expecting a ransomware attack at some point over the next year – and with the rise of new cryptocurrencies paving the way for anonymous banking, cyber ransoms are getting easier to pay.

Protecting against ransomware is a minefield for the current information security leader; there are holes all over the place. 22% of businesses admit that they still have weaknesses or gaps in their cybersecurity, many of which attribute this to the difficulties faced with stopping their users from compromising security. Indeed, this is the most pressing vulnerability for businesses when protecting against online threat in the present day, particularly as the world moves forward with offering new remote or hybrid ways of working, putting even more pressure on IT teams to implement secure remote working solutions and policies.

Serbus is an industry leader in securing the remote worker. We specialise in mobile device communications with an advanced level of security, providing our clients with the ultimate toolkit they need to protect and stay ahead of cyber threat.

To find out more about our on-premise or hosted solutions visit our OCaaS page, or learn more about the capability of our solutions over on Serbus Secure. Alternatively, you can speak to one of our experts by emailing [email protected], or calling the office on 01432 870879