Ransomware Accounted for 81% of Financial Cyberattacks in 2020

The emergence of ransomware has been good documented, but a caller survey has shown the sheer grade of its maturation successful 2020, during which it was liable for 81% of each financially motivated cyberattacks.

It's an costly concern for the companies progressive – according to the report, the mean outgo of a ransomware breach successful 2020 was $4.44 million.

With everyone from corporations to section authorities and wellness organisations each having been connected the receiving extremity of ransomware attacks successful 2020, they amusement nary motion of slowing going into the caller year.

The Cost of Ransomware Attacks successful 2020

The caller data, collected by AtlasVPN and sourced from manufacture reports including CrowdStrike, IBM Security and Heimdal Security amusement the grade of the ransomware issue, with 63% of each cyberattacks successful the past twelvemonth being financially motivated.

Of those, 81% were ransomware attacks. The others were made up of point of sale intrusions, ecommerce attacks and concern email compromise.

The study makes for uncomfortable speechmaking adjacent for those who haven't been deed with ransomware yet. Studies amusement that implicit fractional of businesses person been targeted by ransomware.

The summation successful ransomware attacks tin beryllium blamed connected the ongoing pandemic, which has seen an unprecedented summation successful distant working, starring to a catalog of potential strategy weaknesses arsenic companies conflict to acceptable up unafraid unit entree to their infrastructures from a assortment of antithetic devices and locations.

According to BitDefender, ransomware attacks jumped 715% successful 2020.

The Biggest Ransomware Payouts successful 2020

The study besides highlights those companies that were worst deed by ransomware attacks past years, with immoderate companies handing implicit eye-watering sums, conscionable to get their businesses backmost connected way again.

1. Garmin

Ordinarily being fig 1 is the spot to strive for, but we fishy that Garmin could bash without this peculiar accolade. According to the report, it was liable for the biggest wage out, a immense $10 million, erstwhile it was the unfortunate of a hack successful July 2020.

The onslaught made headlines, and saw a bulk of the companies servers spell down, meaning that its customers were incapable to usage their devices, including smartwatches and aviation products.

The outage lasted 4 days. While it's worthy noting that the institution ne'er publically acknowledged to person paid the ransom, insiders judge it's the lone avenue the institution had to restoring its services.

2. CWT Global

This question absorption institution besides received an unwelcome ransomware measure for $10 cardinal but managed to negociate it down to a somewhat much palatable $4.5 million.

The onslaught besides took spot successful July 2020, and utilized Ragnar Locker software, which is specially designed to people bundle utilized by managed work providers.

3. Travelex

This British overseas speech firm, similar CWT Global, were besides capable to negociate the requested sum, bringing the archetypal ransom of $6 cardinal down to ‘just' $2.3 million.

The organisation down the hack, the Sodinokibi gang, an organisation thought to beryllium based successful Russia, downloaded and encrypted 5GB of invaluable institution data.

How to Avoid Ransomware Attacks

When it comes to ransomware, prevention truly is amended than the cure, unless you're a institution with peculiarly heavy pockets.

Once a ransomware onslaught is successful, invaluable institution information is held hostage, until the ransom is paid. Attempts to circumvent the ransomware tin effect successful either its imperishable loss, oregon nationalist leaking, threatening firm secrets and delicate idiosyncratic data.

Hackers look for vulnerabilities successful institution systems to instal their ransomware, truthful it follows that 1 of the champion ways to support yourself is to trim the imaginable fig of these.

The ongoing pandemic has proven challenging for galore companies, juggling distant moving employees, which is wherefore galore person mandated the usage of VPNs.

A VPN tin fell your idiosyncratic and institution data, routing users done a unafraid server and fundamentally rendering them anonymous. This makes place idiosyncratic data, and attacks, overmuch harder. Like immoderate system, it's not infallible, but it's surely a amended people of extortion that conscionable leaving the information of your company's information up to chance.

Read our usher to the champion VPN for businesses