Ever since ransomware attacks and “double extortion” attacks became common, law enforcement has urged victims not to pay ransom demands. Paying criminals ransom only encourages them to attack more victims, and despite criminals swearing they will delete their copy of your data that they stole, they don’t. Then, too, once you show them that you are willing to pay, you’ve made yourself more likely to be hit again.
This week, law enforcement reiterated some of the above when the NCA reported that in seizing LockBit servers, they found data from victims who had paid the ransom demands and who had been assured their data would be destroyed.
Shocking news that criminals lie, right? But here are some new findings that will hopefully give future victims serious pause before thinking about paying any ransom demands. Emma Woollacott reports:
Almost eight-in-ten organizations that met ransomware demands in the last two years were hit a second time, according to new research from Cybereason.
Analysis from the security firm found that 56% of organizations suffered more than one ransomware attack in the last 24 months, and nearly two-thirds (63%) were asked to pay again.
Meanwhile, of the organizations that chose to pay a ransom in return for their encrypted systems, only 47% actually got their data and solutions back uncorrupted.
Access Cybereason’s report, Ransomware: The True Cost, on their website. In the meantime, take a look at this one graphic from their report:
Their results indicated that 82% of those who paid ransom were breached again within a year. 36% of them were breached by the same actor, and 42% by a different actor. And the second time around, 63% of these were asked to pay more the second time.
Cybereason concludes that it’s time to reject the ransom. The data certainly supports that.