Kaspersky finds 90% of ransomware victims would pay again

Kaspersky has released a new report titled How business executives perceive the ransomware threat, and it has showed that nearly 90 per cent of organizations around the world that were previously attacked by ransomware would choose to pay a ransom if faced with another attack.

Among organizations that have yet to face a ransomware attack, 67 per cent would be willing to pay and would be less inclined to do so immediately.  Nearly two-thirds or 64 per cent of companies included in the research have sustained a ransomware attack.

Large attacks on enterprises have occurred regularly in recent years, and the number of attacks almost doubled in 2021 alone.

Business leaders within organizations that have previously paid a ransom seem to believe that this is the most effective way to get their data back, with 97 per cent of them reporting that they would be willing to do it again.

66 per cent of companies anticipate that an attack on their business will happen at some stage, viewing it as more likely than other common attack types such as DDoS, supply-chain, APT, cryptomining or cyber-espionage.

“Ransomware has become a serious threat to corporations with new samples regularly emerging and APT groups using it in advanced attacks,” said Sergey Martsynkyan, VP, corporate product marketing at Kaspersky in a statement.

“Giving money to criminals is never recommended though, as this doesn’t guarantee that the encrypted data will be returned and it encourages these cybercriminals to do it again.”

Below are some of Kapersky’s recommendations to help protect against ransomware:

• Always keep software updated on all your devices to prevent attackers from exploiting vulnerabilities and infiltrating your network.
• Focus your defense strategy on detecting lateral movements and data exfiltration to the internet. Pay special attention to outgoing traffic to detect cybercriminals’ connections to your network.
• Set up offline backups that intruders won’t be able to tamper with. Make sure you can quickly access them in the event of an emergency.