Current predictions project that at minimum, 75% of IT organizations will undergo at least one ransomware attack by 2025. Ransomware attacks are skyrocketing. That astronomical computation has many organizations and businesses scrambling to safeguard against the threat of information theft, data loss, and privacy invasion.
It’s paramount to know the degree of vulnerability your business faces in being attacked, but also the potential gravity of financial loss. Small businesses (those with less than $2 billion in revenue), in 2019, lost an average of $143,000 per incident. Business interruption loss, which is commonly left out of the equation, averaged $215,000 per ransomware attack.
Additionally, on average, businesses sacrificed $42,000 in recovery expenses, paid approximately $453,000 in ransom, and invested another $93,000 in crisis services. That same year, large businesses (with more than $2 billion in revenue) lost $18.9 million on average per incident. They also surrendered an average of $175,000 in ransom per incident and $275,000 in other forms of recovery. These whopping totals have grown exponentially since 2019. From 2020 to alone 2021, the total cost of ransomware increased by 243%.
A new trend is emerging: ransomware demands are being catered to each victim. Attackers have begun adjusting their demands to square to their victims’ ability to pay and the effort needed to breach their security. Larger enterprises are more likely to be hit by higher ransom demands and more sophisticated attacks.
Smaller enterprises face more generic attacks with lower ransom demands and generic “off the shelf” attacks. Regardless, the expenses drained from any ransomware attack, despite the complexity, can be devastating financially and operationally.
Now more than ever, it’s essential to brace for the impact of ransomware attacks. With the enormous transition to working-from-home, business cybersecurity has become preeminent. As these attacks become more complex, preparation and recovery tactics must upgrade to match.
What do you think of ransomware and how to stop it? Please share your thoughts on any of the social media pages listed below. You can also comment on our MeWe page by joining the MeWe social network.
