cyber
TRENDS
Chester Wisniewski , Director , Field CTO , Sophos
Compromising their victims ’ backups is now a mainstream element of ransomware attacks , giving adversaries the opportunity to subsequently increase the ransom demand when it is clear that the data cannot be recovered without the decryption key .”
In fact , 95 % of respondents said that cybercriminals tried to compromise their backups during the attack , with 71 % being successful – the second highest backup compromise rate across all industry sectors . Having backups compromised also considerably increases recovery costs , with the total bill coming in five times higher in lower education and four times higher in higher education .
Despite difficult dealings with ransomware , the overall attack rate dropped over the last year . Sixty-three percent of lower education organisations and 66 % of higher education organisations were hit by ransomware attacks – down from 80 % and 79 %, respectively .
At the same time , the rate of data encryption has increased slightly , with 85 % of attacks on lower education and 77 % of attacks on higher education organisations resulting in data encryption , slightly up from the 81 % and 73 %, respectively , reported in the 2023 survey . Unfortunately , cybercriminals are not only encrypting data , they ’ re also stealing it , using it as leverage to further monetise the attack . Twentytwo percent of lower education organisations that had data encrypted said the data was also stolen , together with 18 % in higher education .
We also know that ransomware attackers have upped the ante when it comes to getting paid .
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