Cybercriminal’s main motive behind executing a ransomware attack is the ransom amount, which is to be paid by the organizations to get themselves free from the hands of the cybercriminals. A rise in the number of ransomware attacks in the past year has contributed to the increased number of organizations opting to pay the ransom amount as demanded by the cybercriminals to restore their systems. The results of the recent Security Attitude Survey stated that the total number of organizations around the world that opt to pay the Ransom after falling victim to the ransomware attacks has increased from 14% to 39%. Recently, the Maze ransomware group attacked the computer systems of Hammersmith Medicines Research and then published personal details of thousands of former patients after the company declined to pay the ransom amount. Recently, the Cyble Research Unit (CRU), detected the Maze ransomware group exposing sensitive files of BetUS, an Online Sports Betting Company. By looking above, in this case, also the cybercriminals might have opted to expose the files due to the refusal of paying the ransom amount by BetUS.
In most cases, the organizations opt to pay out the ransom amount to cybercriminals due to various reasons which include the loss of reputation of their company, increased disruption in the organization’s operations, etc. which can ultimately lead the organization to suffer from huge financial losses. Generally, the main cost of ransomware is the associated downtime that the organization has to experience. Usually, the average ransom amount being asked is less than the average cost of downtime which the company has to face. This economic factor tends to make the organization pay out the ransom amount to the cybercriminal. In accordance with these ransomware attacks, Cyble not only holds the largest data breach monitoring search engine but also provides the services which include enabling faster detection of cyber threats via Cyble Vision and providing clear visibility to third-party cyber threats and risks via their Third-Party Cyber Risk Intelligence Platform.
On limited cases where organization have no choice but to pay the Ransom to sustain their business, they must improve their internal cybersecurity controls maturity to prevent themselves from landing into such situations.
About Cyble:
Cyble Inc.’s mission is to provide organizations with a real-time view of their supply chain cyber threats and risks. Their SaaS-based solution powered by machine learning and human analysis provides organizations’ insights to cyber threats introduced by suppliers and enables them to respond to them faster and more efficiently.
Cyble strives to be a reliable partner/facilitator to its clients allowing them with unprecedented security scoring of suppliers through cyber intelligence sourced from open and closed channels such as OSINT, the dark web and deep web monitoring and passive scanning of internet presence. Furthermore, the intelligence clubbed with machine learning capabilities fused with human analysis also allows clients to gain real-time cyber threat intel and help build better and stronger resilience to cyber breaches and hacks. Due to the nature of the collected data, the company also offer threat intelligence capabilities out-of-box to their subscribers.