A Ransomware report compiled by NordLocker- a company that offers a highly secure private cloud has revealed that United States, Canada and United Kingdom are the countries that witnessed highest rate of ransomware attacks. And the most interesting fact is that small business operating in the said regions were at greater risk than the larger ones.
NordLocker analysis was publicly made available on September 28th,2022 and included the fact that nearly two-thirds of attacks were launched on SMBs- mainly those serving the construction, manufacturing and transportation sector along with education.
Conti and LockBit Ransomware groups topped the chart of targeting most victims in the above stated countries as they claimed responsibility to hit 22.5% and 11.3% victims, respectively.
Interestingly, nearly 53% of the targeted victims were attacked two or three times in the past 18 months and that confirms the fact that cyber actors spreading ransomware infect the same victim 2-3 times for a guaranteed ransom pay.
Another survey presented as Databarracks 2022 Data Health Check revealed that over 44% of enterprises paid a ransom, as it was an economically viable option, rather than recovering data from backups, facing losses from downtime, and expenses met by engaging forensic experts to estimate the impact of attack.
The only way to protect against such attacks is to enable efficient backups for disaster recovery, create awareness among employees on the current cyber landscape, never click on links sent via emails and SMSes, and proactively installing threat monitoring and mitigating solutions.
