27% of IT managers at organizations hit by ransomware over the last year admitted to paying the ransom

New research from Sophos reveals that 27% of IT managers at organizations hit by #ransomware over the last year admitted to paying the ransom. The survey also found that paying the ransom ultimately doubles the cost of fully recovering from an attack, when added on top of other recovery costs such as business downtime, lost orders, and operational costs that victims face regardless. Key findings from the survey include:

• The average cost of recovery from a ransomware attack is $1.4 million if you pay the ransom, compared to $730K if you don’t pay the ransom
• About half (51%) of organizations surveyed experienced a significant ransomware attack in the last 12 months, and of those attacks that successfully breached the organization, three quarters (73%) resulted in the encryption of data
• Malicious emails are the main cause of ransomware infections – and they succeed repeatedly at the same organizations