ran·som·ware Can it affect you?

Part 1: The Ransomware Business is Still Booming

Nearly 50 percent of organizations have been hit with ransomware

Source: Osterman Research

According to a June 2016 survey from Osterman Research, almost one out of every two participants indicated their organization had suffered an at least one ransomware attack in the past 12 months. In addition, just four percent of respondents from U.S. organizations said they were very confident in their current security’s ability to prevent a future attack.

56,000 ransomware infections in March 2016, alone

Source: Symantec

Throughout the majority of 2015, the average number of ransomware infections fluctuated between 23,000 and 35,000 per month, according to Symantec. The spike to 56,000 in March 2016 coincided with the arrival of Locky (more on Locky below), distributed primarily by the Necurs botnet, one of the largest networks of infected computers in the world.

$209 million was paid to ransomware criminals in Q1 2016

Source: CNN

Estimates from the FBI put ransomware on pace to be a $1 billion dollar source of income for cyber criminals this year. The agency pointed to a jump in cases where victims reported bigger losses, and also hinted that the actual ransom payment totals may be even larger since many choose not to report the crime.

The average ransom demand is now $679

Source: Symantec

That’s more than double the average demand of $294 observed during attacks in 2015. The success of several high-profile, high-demand attacks, such as the $17,000 ransomware attack on Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in February, may be contributing to the rise.

Prior to an attack, 4 out of 5 organizations are confident backup can provide them with complete recovery

Source: Barkly

In a survey we conducted with IT pros from over 300 organizations, nearly 100% reported they were actively backing up their data. Out of those who had not yet experienced a ransomware attack, 81 percent said they were confident they would be able to recover any data attackers encrypted from backup, without paying the ransom.

Less than half of ransomware victims fully recover their data, even with backup

Source: Barkly

Of the IT pros we surveyed who had experienced a ransomware attack, only 42 percent reported being able to successfully recover all their data from backup. Common reasons for incomplete backup recovery included unmonitored and failed backups, loss of accessible backup drives that were also encrypted, and loss of between 1-24 hours of data from the last incremental backup snapshot.

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