Nearly a quarter of businesses have suffered a ransomware attack, with a fifth occurring in the past 12 months, according to the latest annual report from Hornetsecurity.
The 2022 Ransomware Report, which surveyed over 2,000 IT leaders, revealed that 24 percent have been victims of a ransomware attack, with one in five (20 percent) attacks happening in the last year.
Cyber attacks are happening more frequently. Last year’s ransomware survey revealed one in five (21 percent) companies experienced an attack; this year it rose by three percent to 24 percent.
Microsoft 365 users targeted by attackers
The 2022 Ransomware Report highlighted a lack of knowledge on the security available to businesses. A quarter (25 percent) of IT professionals either don’t know or don’t think that Microsoft 365 data can be impacted by a ransomware attack.
Just as worryingly, 40 percent of IT professionals that use Microsoft 365 in their organization admitted they do not have a recovery plan in case their Microsoft 365 data was compromised by a ransomware attack.
Lack of business preparedness
Industry responses showed the widespread lack of preparedness from IT professionals and businesses. There has been an increase in businesses not having a disaster recovery plan in place if they do succumb to the heightened threat of a cyber attack.
In 2021, 16 percent of respondents reported having no disaster recovery plan in place. In 2022, this grew to 19 percent, despite the rise in attacks.
The survey also showed that more than one in five businesses (21 percent) that were attacked either paid up or lost data. Hackers have an incentive to run these ransomware attacks because there’s a decent chance that they’ll get a payday - 7 percent of IT professionals whose organization was attacked paid the ransom, while 14 percent admitted that they lost data to an attack.
