82% of British Firms Payout on Ransomware

A sad indictment of the state of British Cyber -Security was published by the BBC this week.

Security firm Proofpoint conducted market research that found 82% of UK businesses who have been victims of ransomeware attacks had paid out in order to recover their data. This compares to a global average of 58%.

Perhaps more shockingly, over 75% of UK businesses were affected by ransomeware in 2021.

Phishing attacks remain the primary route for infection.

Capitulating to these criminal demands is discouraged by government and has a number of issues associated.  Obviously it promotes and funds such activity. Secondly, having made a first payment only half of victims recovered their data because the criminals see this as an opportune time to demand more money.

It was also reported that Phishing attacks have a staggering success rate. 91% of companies attacked will fall into the trap.

IT Ambulance has for the last 5 years successfully run anti phishing campaigns designed to educate our customers and keep Cyber-Security at the forefront of their thoughts. Perhaps because of this we have seen no meaningful damage from such an attack in the last 4 years. The last successfully delivered ransomeware attack on one of our customers systems was flagged within 12 seconds and the infected client automatically disconnected from the network. Least priveledge access means that damage potential is minimised and can be restored from back up very quickly.

Such mitigations are not complex or extraordinarily expensive and every organisation in the UK should have them.