Report: 78% increase in ransomware attacks in last year

An impartial survey from Sophos revealed on April 27 discovered that 66% of organizations globally have been hit by a ransomware assault final yr, a 78% improve from the yr earlier than. 

Enterprise technical decision-makers are working in an more and more hostile surroundings, the place safety threats are proliferating in quantity and complexity. On this surroundings, info know-how leaders on the frontlines could discover the stakes increased than ever: The report discovered that 86% of private-sector organizations hit by ransomware in 2021 mentioned the assaults had prompted their group to lose enterprise or income. 

Ransom funds have additionally elevated, the report discovered. The typical fee over the course of the previous yr was $812,360, virtually 5 instances greater than the 2020 common of $170,000. 

“Alongside the escalating funds, the survey reveals that the proportion of victims paying up additionally continues to extend, even when they could produce other choices obtainable,” mentioned Chester Wisniewski, principal analysis scientist at Sophos, in an announcement despatched to VentureBeat. “There might be a number of causes for this, together with incomplete backups or the need to stop stolen knowledge from showing on a public leak web site.”

After a ransomware assault happens, there could be intense strain to get again up and working as quickly as doable, Wisniewski mentioned. “Restoring encrypted knowledge utilizing backups could be a tough and time-consuming course of, so it may be tempting to suppose that paying a ransom for a decryption secret is a quicker possibility.” 

Sophos’s report was performed in January and February 2022 by Vanson Bourne, a analysis company, and surveyed 5,600 IT professionals at mid-size organizations (100-5,000 staff) in 31 international locations. Respondents have been requested about their experiences with ransomware over the earlier yr.

Learn the full report by Sophos.