A study by Sophos Global has revealed the extent to which businesses are at risk of repeated ransomware attacks and exploits
The State of Endpoint Security Today, a survey conducted by Sophos, polled more than 2,000 IT decision makers from mid-sized public and private sector organisations in 10 countries worldwide and concluded that businesses are still not prepared to face today’s fast-evolving threats.
These countries included the US, Canada, Mexico, France, Germany, UK, Australia, Japan, India and South Africa.
Key findings include:
- 54 percent of public sector organisations admitted to being hit by ransomware in the last year
- According to those impacted by ransomware last year, the average total cost of a ransomware attack in public sector organisations was £369,604. This extends beyond any ransom demanded and includes downtime, manpower, device cost, network cost, and lost opportunities. 14% of those surveyed reported a total cost of £500,000 or more
- Healthcare is the industry most likely to fall victim to a ransomware with over three-quarters of respondents (76%) hit in the last year.
- Despite healthcare having the highest propensity to suffer an attack (76%), it is also the sector with the highest level of anti-ransomware protection in place. Potentially because cybercriminals perceive healthcare as a soft target so disproportionately target this sector.
Dan Schiappa, senior vice president and general manager of products at Sophos said: “Ransomware is not a lightning strike – it can happen again and again to the same organisation.
“Cybercriminals are deploying multiple attack methods to succeed, whether using a mix of ransomware in a single campaign, taking advantage of a remote access opportunity, infecting a server, or disabling security software.
“Due to this complexity and intelligence of modern threats, traditional endpoint technologies are often unable to keep up with advanced exploit attacks used to compromise a system. This is why the latest version of Sophos Intercept X has added predictive, deep learning capabilities which can learn by experience, create a high accuracy rate, and a low false positive rate. Intercept X can bring the most advanced next-generation protection to any organisation, regardless of their current strategy”
Sophos Intercept X
The software encompasses malware detection powered by advanced deep learning neutral networks, combined with new active-hacker mitigation, advanced application lockdown, and enhanced ransomware protection.
It also includes innovations in anti-ransomware and exploit prevention, as well as active-hacker mitigations such as credential theft protection.
