Running a business is no easy feat. Business owners spin multiple plates, from employee management to marketing to data security, all while mitigating risk and focusing on the bottom line. Regarding computer data, businesses must ensure that they’re protected. For example, in Coveware’s Incident Response Team’s 2019 Q2 Ransomware Marketplace report, Coveware shines a light on the real cost of a ransomware attack for companies.
Norton, the anti-virus giant, defines ransomware as malware that will:
“Lock and encrypt a victim’s computer data, then demand a ransom to restore access. In many cases, the victim must pay the cybercriminal within a set amount of time or risk losing access forever.”
According to data, the average ransomware payment increased by 184% so far in 2019, largely due to the increase in ransomware variants, Ryuk and Sodinokibi. Unfortunately, these ransomware programs have become more prevalent, while pressuring the targeted enterprises to meet higher demands.
Ransomware attackers identify vulnerabilities in enterprise infrastructures, like backdoors in hosted ISP or via IT service management vendors. These software or structural oversights could deliver a devastating financial blow to your business. The average ransom payment is more than $35K, and that doesn’t include downtime and other costs associated with incident response.
Research shows the average downtime for a company after a ransomware attack is almost ten days, which is a negative increase from seven days in 2019’s Q1. Partially driving the increase is that more IT managed service providers are being targeted, with a substantial number of incidents targeting the providers’ entire client base. These types of attacks can significantly degrade the resolution process.
Even if your business is able to recover from the financial hit, what about your data?
In most cases, ransomware attackers offer a working encryption key, allowing companies to access their data. If you get an encryption key from the attacker, your files and servers may still suffer damage during the attack. However, in cases when such access isn’t provided, a full loss of data is the most likely outcome.Sadly, there’s no guarantee of 100% data recovery in any situation.
You don’t have to sit and wait to be targeted by a ransomware attack. Instead, be proactive and set up a call with IT Vortex. We are an expert in Cyber Threat Detection and Analysis. Contact us today and we can help you with a free Cyber Threat Analysis Program to help ensure your protection.