Ransomware attacks: is there a case for paying up?

Hannah Murphy reports:

To pay or not to pay? For companies unfortunate enough to be hit by a ransomware attack, that is the crucial question. Ransomware attacks — in which cyber criminals lock up a victim’s data or computer system and release it only if a ransom is paid — exploded in 2020 and 2021, in part because a shift to remote working during the pandemic left organisations more vulnerable to hacking. But the tide appears to be turning. In its mid-year 2022 Cyber Threat Report, US security company Sonic­Wall identified a 23 per cent drop in the number of ransomware attempts. It attributed this to several factors — including a “downward” trend in the number of organisations willing to pay cyber criminals. That trend is borne out in the data gathered by those who help victims of ransomware handle the fallout. In 2019, 85 per cent of ransomware cases handled by cyber security group Coveware ended in a payment. But, in the first quarter of 2022, that proportion had fallen to 46 per cent.

Read more at FT.