April 29 — Ransomware’s price tag is often much more significant than the number listed in an extortion demand. Leaders are often caught off-guard when seeing figures associated with total ransomware costs. Total ransomware expenses may include downtime, remediation, round-the-clock staffing, legal fees, stock depreciation, and other products, services, or losses.

Organizations commonly spend over $4 million in the ransomware remediation process. A select group of firms have paid as much as $50 million for complete restoration of systems.

Curious about ransomware’s true costs? The latest ransomware report from Check Point Research explores the ransomware economy from the perspectives of both the cyber criminal gangs and those of victim organizations.

Key report findings

• The Check Point Research team has observed a 24% increase in ransomware attacks globally.
• The duration of ransomware attacks dropped to an average of 9.9 days in 2021, after steady increases (to a peak of 15 days) across the three prior years.
• Organizations are waking up to the danger presented by ransomware. Many now have precise mitigation and response plans, which ultimately assist in lowering total expenses.

Profit-driven hackers

A closer look at hacker operations shows that some groups, such as Conti, pursue targets and extortion schemes in a methodical way designed to maximize profits. For example, the higher the annual revenue of the targeted organization, the lower the percentage of revenue that the hackers will demand, since that percentage will represent a higher numerical value in dollars.

Further thoughts

As attackers adopt new ways to inflict financial damage, organizations also need to adapt. Adequate preventative and defensive measure must be in-place in order to negate damaging and costly ransomware attacks.

Ensure that your organization provides employees with awareness training, develops a data backup system, maintains comprehensive endpoint security, leverages zero-trust principles, and minimizes attack surfaces. Read the CyberTalk.org ransomware prevention eBook for further insights.

For more information about the latest ransomware trends, get a Check Point Research report here. Lastly, to receive more cutting-edge cyber security news,  best practices and analyses, please sign up for the CyberTalk.org newsletter.