Ransomware has become a popular means for cyber criminals to cash in on their activities. They use ransomware to encrypt companies’ essential data and ask to pay a ransom in return. If companies have not backed up their information, they must dig into their pockets to get it back.
All this is according to the data presented by the Atlas VPN team based on a Veeam 2022 Ransomware Trends Report. The research reveals that 73% of organisations suffered two or more ransomware attacks in the past 12 months. The majority — 44% of ransomware infections entered through phishing emails, links, and websites.
In total, 35% of organisations experienced two ransomware attacks, nearly a quarter (24%) endured three, close to a fifth (9%) of companies had four, and 4% went through five. Meanwhile, 1% of organisations suffered six or more ransomware attacks in the past 12 months. The remaining 27% of organisations faced only one ransomware attack.
Ransomware will continue to be used in cyberattacks as long as businesses are willing to pay up, and, according to Atlas VPN findings, they still are.
A whopping 76% of organisations affected by ransomware in the past twelve months went through with the ransom payment. However, nearly one in four (24%) companies still could not recover their data afterwards.
On the positive side, nearly a fifth (19%) of companies that got their IT systems infected with ransomware in the past twelve months were able to recover their data without paying the ransom. Meanwhile, 5% were not asked to pay in the first place.
The data is based on a January 2022 survey of over 1,000 IT leaders from over 16 countries, across APJ, EMEA and the Americas. All respondents must have experienced at least one cyber attack in the last 12 months.
