64% of Indian Organisations Hit by Ransomware in the Last Year
Sophos recently released its annual “State of Ransomware in India 2024” report today. The findings reveal that while the rate of ransomware attacks against Indian organisations decreased from 73% in the previous year to 64% this year, the impact on victims has intensified, with higher ransom demands and recovery costs. The report, based on a survey of 500 IT decision-makers in India, found that for the first time, Indian organisations were more likely to recover data by paying the ransom (65%) than using backups (52%). The average ransom demand was $4.8 million, with 62% of demands exceeding $1 million, and the median ransom paid was $2 million. According to the report, 44% of impacted computers on average were encrypted in attacks against Indian victims, and 34% of attacks included data theft in addition to encryption. Excluding ransom payments, the average cost to recover from an attack was $1.35 million. The report also found that 61% of victims were able to recover data within a week, up from 59% in 2022, and 96% reported the attack to authorities, with 70% receiving investigation assistance. Sunil Sharma, Vice President, Sales, India and SAARC, Sophos, emphasised the importance of prevention as the most cost-effective ransomware strategy, along with comprehensive backup and recovery measures and continual review of security posture and incident response plans. The report also highlighted global findings, including that 94% of organisations hit by ransomware said that cybercriminals attempted to compromise their backups during the attack, with 57% successful attempts. Sophos recommends implementing endpoint protection, bolstering defences with round-the-clock threat detection and response, building and maintaining an incident response plan and making regular backups to defend against ransomware and other cyberattacks.
The Sophos report reveals that while attacks against Indian enterprises decreased from 73% in the previous year, the impact has intensified.
The Sophos report reveals that while attacks against Indian enterprises decreased from 73% in the previous year, the impact has intensified.
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Shyam is a tech journalist with expertise in policy and politics, and exhibits a fervent interest in scrutinising the convergence of AI and analytics in society. In his leisure time, he indulges in anime binges and mountain hikes.