According to a new poll of 300 IT decision-makers in the United States, 64 percent had been ransomware attack targets in the last 12 months, with 83 percent paying the ransom demand.
ThycoticCentrify, a cybersecurity firm, issued its “2021 State of Ransomware Survey & Report” on Tuesday, which includes the perspectives of IT executives who encountered ransomware operations last year.
Ransomware concerns have caused 72 percent of those polled to raise their cybersecurity expenditures, and 93 percent designate specific resources to combat such attacks.
Ransomware attacks caused half of the respondents to lose income and reputational damage, while 42 percent claimed they lost clients due to the attack. More than a third of respondents indicated they had to lay off workers as well.
Email (53%) was cited as the most vulnerable channel for ransomware attacks, followed by apps (41%) and the cloud (38%).
Privilege access was the most common attack vector, reported by 26 percent of respondents, followed by vulnerable endpoints (25 percent).
According to the survey, organizations invest their increasing cyber security expenditures on ransomware avoidance solutions such as network security (49%) and cloud security (41%). Identity access management (24 percent), endpoint security (23 percent), and privileged access management (19 percent) are all lower objectives for budget spend in this poll.
Taking the backup of vital data is one of the most popular precautions to avoid ransomware attacks (57 percent). It is followed by keeping systems and software up-to-date (56 percent) and enforcing password best practices (50 percent). Adopting the least privileged posture (34 percent) is the last one on the list.
Experts weren’t shocked by the survey’s findings, given how many corporations have been vocal about settling ransoms. After severe ransomware events, major businesses like Colonial Pipeline and JBS acknowledged paying ransoms. However, studies reveal that several companies pay ransoms.
