Ransomware Demands Spike 320%, Payments Rise

[silversurfer]

When it comes to paying the ransom in a ransomware attack, demands are on the rise. Yet, many companies that paid the ransom failed to receive a decryption key, in a survey issued Monday.
 
In fact, pandemic-themed phishing scams, a sustained onslaught of ransomware attacks and the rise of a remote global workforce all colluded to make the last 12 months particularly brutal for information-security professionals, according to the report.

Proofpoint’s State of the Phish report for 2020 surveyed 600 informational security pros across seven countries: Australia, France, Germany, Japan, Spain, U.K and the U.S.; incorporated highlights from an additional third-party survey of 3,500 adult workers across the same countries; and analyzed more than 60 million simulated phishing attacks to reach its conclusions, the company said.
 
Of the 75 percent of companies which responded to the State of the Phish report saying they were infected by ransomware, more than half decided to pay the ransom to get their data back, Proofpoint said. Of that half who paid, only 60 percent were given back access to their data. The other 40 percent were hit with additional ransom demands, which is up 320 percent over last year.
 
Instead of reacting after they’ve lost control of their data, Gretel Egan, senior security awareness and training strategist for Proofpoint, told Threatpost that organizations need to make decisions about how to react well before the breach.
 
“Reaction to a ransomware infection is a very individual thing,” Egan said. “The scale of the infection, impact to operations, and amount of ransom are all likely to factor into the ultimate decision about how to handle an attack. But a good best practice is to have a thoroughly prepared and tested response in place before a ransomware attack takes hold, one that considers a number of different ransomware scenarios. It’s critical to evaluate the risk vs. reward of making a payment, and alternatives they can pursue.

Read more: https://threatpost.com/ransomware-demand...se/163744/