Over 80% of businesses around the world have been attacked by ransomware in the past two years, with many having to stave off up to four attacks every day, reveals a new report.
Compiled by email security firm Mimecast, the report surveyed 742 cybersecurity professionals from all over the world.
According to the report, while businesses on average experienced 3,000 ransomware attacks over the last two years, large enterprises, with at least 5,000 employees, bore the brunt facing nearly 10,000 attacks in the same time period.
Respondents cited phishing emails with ransomware attachments (54%), web security (47%), and phishing emails leading to a drive-by download (45%) as the top three ransomware attack vectors.
Victim of overconfidence
The report also highlights that most businesses are overconfident about their preparedness to defend against a ransomware attack. This finding is in line with that of cybersecurity intelligence firm Skybox Security, which also noted the growing disconnect between the security decision-makers and the ground reality.
For instance, the Mimecast report finds that despite the overwhelming number of attacks, 83% of executives believe they can get all their data back without paying the ransom, which directly contradicts the fact that 39% agreed that they gave in to the demand of their attackers.
Similarly, while 77% of the respondents believed they could bring their company back to a state of normalcy within two to five days, only 45% reported taking file backups that would help them get back up.
Furthermore, the report revealed that the average ransom payment in the UK was £628,606 (about $848,377), while in the US it was $6,312,190.
“Preparation is key in combating these attacks. It’s great to see cybersecurity leaders feel prepared, but they must continue to be proactive and work to improve processes. This report clearly shows ransomware attacks pay, which gives cybercriminals no incentive to slow down,” remarked Jonathan Miles, head of strategic intelligence & security research, Mimecast.
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