Sophos, a global leader in next-generation cybersecurity, this week announced findings from its survey report, “The State of Ransomware in Financial Services 2021,” that show how mid-sized financial services organisations worldwide spent more than US$2 million on average recovering from a ransomware attack. This figure exceeds the global average of $1.85 million, even though the [...]

Business Times

25% paid extortion money in Ransomware: Sophos

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Sophos, a global leader in next-generation cybersecurity, this week announced findings from its survey report, “The State of Ransomware in Financial Services 2021,” that show how mid-sized financial services organisations worldwide spent more than US$2 million on average recovering from a ransomware attack.

This figure exceeds the global average of $1.85 million, even though the results also show the financial sector is among the most resilient against ransomware, the company said in a media release. Nearly two-thirds (62 percent) of victims surveyed in this sector were able to restore their encrypted data from backups. The survey studied the extent and impact of ransomware attacks during 2020.

Other findings include:

  • 34 percent of the financial services organisations surveyed were hit by ransomware in 2020
  • 51 percent of the organisations impacted said the attackers succeeded in encrypting their data
  • Only 25 percent paid the ransom demanded to get their encrypted data back. This is the second lowest payment rate of all industries surveyed. The global average was 32 percent

Financial services is among the most highly regulated industries in the world. Organisations must adhere to myriad regulations, including SOX, GDPR, and PCI DSS, that include pricey penalties for non-compliance and data breaches. Many of these organisations are also required to prepare business continuity and disaster recovery plans to minimise any potential damage from data breaches or operational disruptions stemming from a cyberattack.

“Strict guidelines in the financial services sector encourage strong defenses,” said John Shier, senior security advisor, Sophos. “Unfortunately, they also mean that a direct hit with ransomware is likely to be very costly for targeted organisations. If you add up the price of regulatory fines, rebuilding IT systems and stabilising brand reputation, especially if customer data is lost, you can see why the survey found that recovery costs for mid-sized financial services organisations hit by ransomware in 2020 were in excess of $2 million. Two other slightly worrying data points are the fact that a small, but significant, 8 percent of financial services organisations experienced what are known as ‘extortion’ attacks, where data is not encrypted, but stolen and victims are threatened with the online publication of their data unless they pay the ransom. Backups cannot protect against this risk, so financial services organisations should not rely on them as an anti-extortion defense. Further, 11 percent of the financial organisations surveyed believe they won’t get hit because they are ‘not a target.’ This is a dangerous perception because anyone can be a target. The best approach is to assume you will be a target and to build your defenses accordingly.”

The State of Ransomware in Financial Services 2021 survey polled 5,400 IT decision makers, including 550 in financial services organisations, in 30 countries across Europe, the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Central Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

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