Polish business is less likely to fall victim to ransomware attacks, but removing the effects of such an attack costs Polish companies on average about PLN 1.5 million, according to a study by Sophos.
The percentage of Polish companies attacked by ransomware has decreased, according to a study by Sophos, 13% experienced it last year. However, it is more difficult to remove the effects of the attack. It costs Polish companies an average of PLN 1.49 million. In the last year, the total losses caused by ransomware more than doubled. The study confirms that paying criminals is not worth paying – less than 1 in 10 companies that did so managed to recover all their data.
“The visible decline in the percentage of companies affected by ransomware probably means that criminals are changing their strategy. Instead of mass, automated attacks, they use targeted, targeted at a specific enterprise. The overall number of attacks is therefore smaller, but it is more difficult to neutralize their effects, and the value of the damage caused is growing dynamically. Data recovery can take years, and there is no guarantee that it will be successful. The use of low-quality or hastily created malicious code by criminals can make it difficult or even impossible to decrypt resources, even if the company pays the ransom,”- pointed out system engineer at Sophos, Grzegorz Nocoń.
Almost half (46%) of Polish medium and large companies lost from 50 to 254 thousand as a result of a ransomware attack. PLN, 31% incurred costs between PLN 2.5 and 5 million – they were related to downtime in operations, lost orders, operating costs, penalties related to inadequate data protection, etc. Over the last year, the total cost of removing the effects of ransomware worldwide more than doubled: from 761 thousand. up to $ 1.85 million. This is as much as 10 times the average value of the ransom paid ($ 170,000).
The percentage of companies that have fallen victim to ransomware has dropped worldwide, from 51% in 2020 to 37% in 2021. Poland has one of the lowest rates – 13% of companies attempted to attack, compared to 28% in 2020. This may be due to the lower level of GDP in Poland and, consequently, the lower chance of criminals obtaining a valuable ransom.
However, more companies pay to unlock data – a year ago in the world it was 26%, in 2021 it was already 32%. However, only 8% of them managed to recover all resources; every third regained less than half of the information.
Medium-sized and large Polish companies are increasingly protecting themselves against cyber threats. 43% declare that they have a detailed data recovery plan after an attack. Of the companies against which an attempt was made to attack ransomware, as many as 77% blocked it before the data was encrypted. Only 15% of incidents ended successfully and criminals blocked access to information.
A ransomware attack is expected by 6 out of 10 companies that have not experienced it yet. More than half of them (54%) indicate that cyber attacks are now too advanced to stop them, while 39% expect an attack because other industry players have already experienced it. However, every third (27%) Polish company assumes that it will not fall victim to ransomware. As many as 3 out of 4 companies indicate that IT specialists are adequately trained to stop attacks and have effective protection solutions. 63% have backups that will allow the company to recover.
“Increasingly, ransomware attacks involve not only the encryption of data, but also demands for a ransom for not disclosing stolen information. Therefore, layered protection is important to keep criminals out before they even enter the corporate network. In order to reduce the cost of neutralizing an attack, it is worth developing a recovery plan. and use the 3-2-1 approach – three backup sets, on two different media, one of which is stored offline. However, if a company falls victim to an attack, it does not have to face criminals alone. experts that offer specialist support and 24/7 response “- added Nocoń.
The State of Ransomware 2021 study was conducted by the independent research agency Vanson Bourne in January and February 2021. As part of the study, interviews were conducted with 5,400 IT decision-makers in 30 countries: USA, Canada, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Austria, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Poland, Czech Republic, Turkey, Israel, UAE, Saudi Arabia, India, Nigeria, South Africa, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines. The respondents came from companies employing 100 to 5 thousand people. employees.
Source Sophos and ISBnews
