As soon as we hear or read about a ransomware attack on a company, we are in a state of mind that the business needs to pay only the ransom in order to avoid a loss to its data continuity on a permanent loss.
But we never think or bother about the hidden/unexpected costs that a file encrypting malware attack brings with it.
So, to those uninitiated, here’s a gist of those direct and indirect costs-
Business continuity clarity- Most of the businesses do not know how to recover the data or from where it should be recovered to keep their business going. So, remember a recovery and a continuity plan are two different sides of a coin, as some companies might take 6-12 months to recover from a ransomware attack depending on the complexity of the data and till then they need to face several issues that can bring in to them immense losses.
Cyber Insurance Fees gets high- Whether your business is previously (before the attack) covered under the cyber insurance policy, as soon as it witnesses an attack on its IT Infrastructure, the company that issues a policy will definitely jack up the prices. The amount recovered from the insurance policy from the first malware attack might not be covering all the costs of recovery or the ransom to be/or paid to the hackers.
Customers do not value anymore- The foremost thing that is witnessed in a ransomware attack on a business is that the customers lose trust in the firm and they seem to look for options. Things get complicated when the customers try to contact the customer care after learning about the attack. And eventually might conclude that the victimized firm is simply unreliable.
Rebuilding trust again becomes expensive- Obviously, it is hard for the ransomware attacked company to rebuild trust among its customers, partners and clients. And so the investment needed to build up the marketing and PR tactics will also witness arise.
Investors move out- As soon as a company database is hit by a database, its value on the stock market decreases and this makes the investors think twice before investing further.
Employees lose interest- When a business firm is targeted by a ransomware attack, the employees of the firm lost interest as they fear job loss because of the financial crisis that looms in the company because of a cyber attack. Soon, they look for other job opportunities that result in loss of skilled workforce.
Ransom payment consequences- If the victimized firm pays a ransom, there is no guaranty that the hackers will return the decryption key for sure as soon as they receive the payment. Also, there is a high probability that they might demand more or attack the same business infrastructure twice or thrice- as they find this digital extortion technique highly lucrative.
Hope, this article helps enlighten the minds of at least a few CTOs and CIOs, compelling them to take all necessary proactive measures to bolster their Cybersecurity defense-line.
