The ransom economy: a third of Australian victims pay, half get nothing back
Attackers now sit inside victims’ networks for more than 200 days before striking, giving them time to encrypt the backups companies rely on to avoid paying.
Hackers are getting more sophisticated with the ransomware industry becoming professionalised, and Australian businesses are paying for it. Literally.
New research shows 30% of Australian organisations were targeted by ransomware in the last year and a third of those paid the demand, with 46% of payers reporting the attacker either failed to release their data or returned demanding more money.
The survey of 411 IT decision-makers across Australia and New Zealand, from the sixth edition of the State of Data Resilience report, was commissioned by Nasdaq-listed cybersecurity company Commvault.
Paying is widely discouraged by law enforcement and cybersecurity experts, who warn it marks victims as willing payers and invites repeat attacks.
