US businesses reportedly lost $21 billion in a series of ransomware attacks propelled downtime that took place last year. And the results were released by a survey carried out by research firm Comparitech
After analyzing information from several resources such as data breach reports, IT news bits, and some reporting tools by states, researchers from Comparitech said that the figures were meager estimate and the actual loss could be far high from what was being estimated.
On an average, the affected companies lost 9 days in downtime and some took nearly 2-4 months to investigate the attacks and the impact on their company profits.
Coming to the ransom that was demanded, the study carried out by Comparitech revealed that the ransom demand ranged from $10 million to $21 million. Most of the ransomware groups indulged in double extortion tactics to pressurize their victims to pay up.
In over 186 ransomware attacks that were recorded last year, it was observed that over 7 million records belonging to individuals was leaked or accessed by hackers who then sold the information on the dark web to make quick money.
So, what is to be expected in 2021?
Well, researchers say that the focus of those spreading file encrypting malware might shift to large companies for whom data means life blood and who can shell out millions to keep their reputation in business intact.
