The cost of falling victim to a ransomware attack is much more than whatever you may pay to get your data back. A recent analysis from Check Point Research found that the ransom itself is often only a small part of the expenses associated with ransomware, if a ransom is ever even paid. In fact, the actual ransom is frequently dwarfed by all the surrounding actions, from incident response, to systems and data restoration, and even legal fees, as reported by Computer Weekly.
Says Sergey Shykevich, threat intelligence group manager for Check Point, “Noteworthy is the fact that for victims, the ‘collateral cost’ of ransomware is seven times more than the ransom they pay. Our message to the public is that building in advance proper cyber defences, especially a well-defined response plan to ransomware attacks, can save a lot of money for organisations.”
Outside of the costs, the analysis did have some positive news, noting that the average time for a ransomware attack had decreased by 6 days from the previous year, down from 15 days to 9 days, which was seen to be at least partially due to companies having better response plans in place.
Source:
https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252516478/Ransomware-recovery-costs-dwarf-actual-ransoms
