Ransomware attack: 78% Indian organizations suffered attacks in 2021, many paid extortion

The numbers of victims, ransom payments, and the impact of these attacks continued to rise during 2021

May 4, 2022

Over 7 in 10 Indian firms suffered from ransomware attacks last year

According to cybersecurity firm ‘Sophos’, more than seven in 10 (78 percent) of Indian organizations were hit with ransomware attacks last year, up from 68 percent in 2020,
ransomware is a type of malware attack in which the attacker locks and encrypts the victim’s data, and important files and then demands a payment to unlock and decrypt the data.

The reports by Sophos said that the average ransom paid by the Indian organizations that had data encrypted in their most significant ransomware attack was $1,198,475, with 10 percent of victims paying ransoms of $1 million or more.

Seventy-eight percent of the Indian organizations that had data encrypted paid the ransom to get their data back, even if they had other means of data recovery, such as backups. It took on average one month to recover from the damage and disruption.

Sunil Sharma, managing director, sales, India and SAARC, Sophos, said, “The ransomware situation in India is worrying. The numbers of victims, ransom payments, and the impact of these attacks continued to rise during 2021, at considerable cost.”

“While the average expense of recovering from an incident declined to $2.8 million from $3.4 million in 2020, it remains a significant number that should be sounding alarm bells among management teams of Indian firms,” Sharma said in a statement.

According to the ‘State of Ransomware 2022‘ report, 97 percent of organizations said the attack had impacted their ability to operate, and 92 percent of the victims said they had lost business and/ or revenue because of the attack.

“Nearly 89 percent of mid-sized organizations had cyber insurance that covers them in the event of a ransomware attack and in 100 percent of incidents, the insurer paid some or all the costs incurred,” the findings showed.

“A considerable number of Indian victims are prepared to pay more than $1 million, but even ransom payments of a few thousand dollars are a good return for the crooks,” said Sharma.

[With Inputs from IANS]

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