Ransomware attacks reduced: Sophos

Sophos, the world’s leading cyber security firm, has recently released its annual report. The State of Ransomware 2023 report found a slight decrease in the rate of ransomware attacks in Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) last year.

According to the latest survey, 68 percent of organizations have fallen victim to ransomware, up from 72 percent the previous year. Of the 71 percent of organizations exposed to ransomware surveyed, 49 percent paid a ransom to encrypt information or data, which is slightly lower than last year’s rate of 55 percent, but higher than the 2023 global average of 47 percent.

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Global studies show that when an organization pays a ransom to decrypt their data, their costs double. While it costs $375,000 to back up the organization’s information, it costs $750,000 just to restore the data. Even after paying the ransom, it takes relatively long time to recover the data. 45 percent of organizations that backed up recovered their data within a week. On the other hand, 39 percent of organizations that paid the ransom required more time.

After analysis, the main causes of ransomware attacks for APJ organizations are attacks on vulnerable systems (in 37 percent cases) and compromised credentials (in 28 percent cases). These aspects of the attack are highlighted in the incident response section of Sophos’ 2023 Active Adversary Report for Business Leaders report.