Ransomware is one of the main threats to business operations, capable of incapacitating or ruining a company at the click of a button. Ranking fourth among cybersecurity challenges in our 2022 Enterprise Security Research report (with 42% of the votes), it’s the threat of ransomware that can cause the most damage, interrupting operations, leading to reputational and legal peril and destroying businesses.
Ransomware is also one of the fastest growing threats, with Sophos reporting that 66% of organizations reported an attack in 2021, up from 37% in 2020 in its State of Ransomware 2022 report. The cost is rising too, with the same report indicating that 11% of attacked companies paid over $1 million to attempt to recover their data, while those that refuse to pay faced around one month of disruption and a clean-up cost of around $1.4 million.
Given the costly aftermath, a strong defensive IT posture is the best way to avoid falling victim, while many organizations also take out cyberattack insurance to cover the costs of a ransomware attack.
This comprehensive guide covers the following chapters:
The term ransomware is well known, but its definition is unclear to many. Ransomware refers to a type of malware that, when triggered, searches for business data files and encrypts them. The ransomware then displays a message, typically across the entire network demanding payment, usually in Bitcoin, that the business must pay to recover the files. Often, even when a ransom is paid the files aren’t decrypted and the original files are often copied and sold on hacker sites for other criminals to exploit.