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2021 2022 2023

2021: ACTIVITY REPORT OF THE CYBER SECURITY COALITION

Ransomware: some facts and figures

Ransomware is a type of malware that blocks access to the target’s personal data or threatens to publish it unless a ransom is paid. Victims may face business downtime if access to critical data is blocked, or the risk of a data leak. Ransomware is considered to be the number 1 threat to business disruption, and that menace has clearly increased during the Covid-19 pandemic.  

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Research has shown that one in three organisations pays the ransom to get their data back. Unfortunately, paying the ransom never results in the recovery of all data. On average, only 65% can be recuperated.

The average ransom payment in Q3 of 2021 was 134,000 US dollars. A higher proportion of payments came from mid-market sized victims. Ransomware actors are clearly shifting from ‘Big Game Hunting’ to ‘Mid-Game Hunting’. So SMEs should remain vigilant. They do not only risk direct damage to themselves, but also indirect damage to their customers, by infecting their networks.

Moreover, a survey by Sophos in 30 countries revealed that the total remediation cost after an incident varies widely; the highest costs are seen in Austria, followed by Belgium in the number 2 spot. This reflects the considerable manual effort required to remediate an attack; the total cost can be up to 10 times the ransom payment itself.

A holistic cyber security approach is needed

Cyber criminals are continuously improving their tools and techniques, to be more effective and breach more victims. Finding and exploiting security weak spots is their core business. Fox-IT observed threats that specifically targeted the Benelux. Over the past months, organisations throughout the region have been hit by a spate of extremely rapid data breach extortion attacks. The attackers typically steal significant amounts of sensitive data within 30 minutes.

Increasingly, attackers are using vulnerability exploits, including those of commonly used protocols (e.g., remote access protocols such as RDP), amongst others. Clearly, applying anti-phishing security measures is not enough - a holistic cyber security approach is absolutely required.

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