decrypting myths
Retail organisations attacked by ransomware increasingly unable to halt an attack in progress , finds Sophos
Ransomware remains a prolific threat for all organisations but , for those in the retail sector , there is a need to re-evaluate defence strategies after Sophos research revealed the sector is increasingly unable to halt attacks in progress . Chester Wisniewski , Director ,
Global Field CTO , Sophos , tells Intelligent CISO more about the research and outlines advice to retailers on how they can get ahead of cybercriminals . ophos , a global
S leader in innovating and delivering Cybersecurityas-a-Service , has shared findings from its sector survey report , The State of Ransomware in Retail 2023 , which found that only 26 % of retail organisations in the past year were able to disrupt a ransomware attack before their data was encrypted .
This is a three-year low for the sector – a decline from 34 % in 2021 and 28 % in 2022 – suggesting the sector is increasingly unable to halt ransomware attacks already in progress .
“ Retailers are losing ground in the battle against ransomware . Ransomware criminals have been encrypting increasingly greater percentages of their retail victims in the last three years , as evidenced by the steadily declining rate of retailers stopping cybercriminal attacks in progress . Retailers must up their defensive game by setting up security that detects and responds to intrusions earlier in the attack chain ,” said Chester Wisniewski , Director , Global Field CTO , Sophos .
In addition , the report found that , for those retail organisations that paid the ransom , their median recovery costs ( not including the ransom payment ) were four times the recovery costs of those that used backups to recover their data ( US $ 3,000,000 versus US $ 750,000 ).
Wisniewski said that a total of 43 % of retail victims paid the ransom according to survey respondents , yet the median recovery cost to victims who paid the ransom was four times the cost to those who used backups and other recovery methods . “ There are no shortcuts in these situations and rebuilding systems is almost always required . It ’ s better to deprive the criminals of their spoils and build back better ,” said Wisniewski .
Additional key findings from the report include :
• In line with a broader , cross-sector trend , the retail sector experienced www . intelligentciso . com
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