14 DAY TRIAL // Ransomware is extremely widespread nowadays, but its impact is not always crystal clear to the world. A new report indicates, however, that ransomware can block access to an entire network in just a few seconds, but it can take over a week for most businesses to get their systems running again.
According to a report published in The Grim Reality of Ransomware by Timico, cloud service provider, and Datto, business continuity solutions provider, businesses suffer a lot because of ransomware attacks, mostly because they are completely unprepared for the possibility of falling victim to such an attack.
The report takes into account data gathered from over a thousand businesses that have fallen prey to ransomware over the past year. About 85% of the infected businesses had their files forced offline for at least a week. A third of cases had to suffer through these issues for a month or more.
What's even worse is that 15% of the businesses targeted by this type of attacks never got their data back, which is always a problem with ransomware, whether you pay the money or you use a decryption tool you find online.
It can take ransomware malware less than a minute to lock down a system. In fact, 68% of respondents said that the effects of an attack were almost instant with data systems becoming useless within seconds and minutes. About a quarter of them reported the lockdown happened in a few seconds, while 18% estimated it took a minute.
Paying the ransomware plus system damages
"Nearly a quarter (23%) of respondents paid over £5,000 ($6,221) to retrieve their data and 26% paid a fee of between £3,000 - £5,000 ($3,732 - $6,221). Higher Ransomware fees in large corporates were reported, with a third of corporate businesses paying over £5,000 ($6,221) to recover data compared to just half that number of SMEs (15%). The highest number of SMEs (35%) paid between £500 ($622) and £1,500 ($1,866) ransom fee," the report reads.
On top of the ransomware they chose to pay, businesses also had financial losses. 53% of respondents estimated that it had cost the business between £1,000 ($1245) and £2,000 ($2,490) per day in lost revenue.
Timico and Datto have also found that there is a complete lack of official ransomware policies in place to guide staff on what to do when an attack occurs, despite the continuous reporting on such infections.
“It’s not just a case of the data loss and financial cost to the business. A ransomware attack can have a debilitating effect, with long-term consequences across the business, with the company even breaching terms of any regulatory bodies that the business holds themselves accountable to," said Nabeil Samara, Chief Digital Officer of Timico.