Report Finds More Companies are Prepared to Pay Bigger Ransoms

The 9th annual Cyberthreat Defense Report (Source: 2022 Cyberthreat Defense Report, CyberEdge Group, LLC.) was recently published. The report surveyed 1200 IT security professionals in 17 countries around the world. What’s the big takeaway? Companies are more resigned to paying ransoms than ever before in history. There has been a significant increase in the percentage of companies actually paying the ransom and the average size of ransomware payments being paid.

Let’s take a look at some other key findings: 

• 85% of organizations suffered a successful cyberattack in 2021
• 62.9% of victimized organizations pay ransoms (up from 45% in the 2019 report)
• Following an increase in attacks, 64% of organizations have embraced Application Programming Interface (API) security.
• 41% of security applications and services are delivered via the cloud
• 75% of surveyed organizations plan to implement SD-WAN, zero-trust network access (ZTNA), and secure access service edge (SASE).
• 84% of surveyed organizations reported difficulty acquiring skilled IT security personnel, analysts, architects, and IT security administrators.
• The average IT security budget for organizations has increased 5% year over year.

With increased attacks, a significant quantity of ransoms being paid, bigger ransoms being paid, and a lack of quality IT personnel, we see small businesses continuing to struggle in the IT security landscape.

What do we recommend?

Prevent the need to pay ransoms by shoring up your cyber defenses so you’re not in a position where it’s either pay up or close your business! Ransomware funds criminals and the DOJ treats these attacks as the same priority as terrorism. 

Get in touch if we can support your team in building the best cybersecurity plan for your business. Contact us here.