cyber trends
A NEW GLOBAL SURVEY REVEALS THAT
MORE THAN HALF OF ORGANISATIONS
QUESTIONED HAD EXPERIENCED A
SIGNIFICANT RANSOMWARE ATTACK IN
THE LAST 12 MONTHS.
ophos, a global
S
leader in nextgeneration
cybersecurity,
has announced
the findings of
its global survey,
The State of Ransomware 2020, which
reveals that paying cybercriminals
to restore data encrypted during a
ransomware attack is not an easy and
inexpensive path to recovery. In fact, the
total cost of recovery almost doubles
when organisations pay a ransom. The
survey polled 5,000 IT decision-makers
in organisations in 26 countries across
six continents, including Europe, the
Americas, Asia-Pacific and central Asia,
the Middle East and Africa.
More than half (51%) of organisations
had experienced a significant
ransomware attack in the previous 12
months, compared to 54% in 2017.
In the UAE, 49% of the organisations
49% of organisations
in the UAE witnessed
a significant
ransomware attack
in the last 12 months,
according to Sophos
surveyed mentioned a ransomware
attack in the last year. Globally, data
was encrypted in nearly three-quarters
(73%) of attacks that successfully
breached an organisation, while in the
UAE, it was 78%. The average cost
of addressing the impact of such an
attack, including business downtime,
lost orders, operational costs and more,
but not including the ransom, was more
than US$730,000. This average cost
rose to US$1.4 million, almost twice
as much, when organisations paid the
ransom. More than one-quarter (27%)
of organisations hit by ransomware
admitted paying the ransom. The survey
also revealed 19% of the organisations
that were attacked in the UAE admitted
to paying the ransom.
“Organisations may feel intense pressure
to pay the ransom to avoid damaging
downtime. On the face of it, paying
the ransom appears to be an effective
way of getting data restored, but this
is illusory. Sophos’ findings show that
18 Issue 26 | www.intelligentciso.com