Ransomware attacks have been plaguing Indian companies for quite some years now and this year 78 percent of them paid ransom to get back data from the hackers, said a survey by research firm Sophos. In 2020, 68 percent of Indian companies were hit by trojan attacks and paid ransom to retrieve important data. The global average of ransomware attacks is 46 percent.
For the annual report titled State of Ransomware 2022 Sophos surveyed 5,600 organisations from 31 countries, out of which 300 companies were from India. The average ransom paid by Indian companies stood at $1,198,475 (roughly Rs 9,155 crores), notes the report. Ten percent of these firms even paid up to $1 million (roughly Rs 7,637 crores) or more to get their data back, even if they had data backups.
The companies needed on average a month’s time to get back to normalcy post the attack as it affected the operations and revenue of entities, suggests the report.
The report also noted that around 89 percent of mid-sized organisations had cyber insurance that covers them in the event of a ransomware attack. In most cases, the insurer paid some or all the costs incurred.
On the other hand, 94 percent of firms with cyber insurance said they had higher demands for cybersecurity measures, wanting more complex or expensive policies but fewer organisations are offering insurance protection.
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