38% of organizations hit with ransomware in 2022 were repeat victims
Highlights:
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Barracuda international survey finds 73% of organizations experienced a successful ransomware attack in 2022 — 38% were hit more than once.
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42% of those hit three times or more paid the ransom to restore encrypted data — compared to 31% of victims hit just once.
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69% of ransomware attacks began with an email.
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27% of organizations feel underprepared to tackle ransomware.
CAMPBELL, Calif., March 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Barracuda Networks, Inc., a trusted partner and leading provider of cloud-first security solutions, today published its 2023 Ransomware Insights report, which shows that 73% of the organizations surveyed report being hit with at least one successful ransomware attack in 2022 — and 38% say they were hit twice or more. The organizations that were hit multiple times were more likely to say they’d paid the ransom — 42% of those hit three times or more paid the ransom to restore encrypted data, compared to 31% of victims of a single attack. They were also less likely to use a data backup system to help them recover.
The survey, conducted by independent research firm Vanson Bourne and commissioned by Barracuda, questioned IT professionals from frontline to the most senior roles at companies with 100 to 2,500 employees, across a range of industries in the U.S. and EMEA and APAC countries.
There were significant variations in the industries targeted by ransomware. For example, 98% of consumer services and 85% of energy, oil/gas, and utility organizations experienced at least one ransomware attack. The energy, oil/gas, and utility industry was also the most likely, at 53%, to report two or more successful ransomware incidents.
The findings show that for 69% of organizations, the ransomware attack started with a malicious email, such as a phishing email designed to steal credentials that would allow the attackers to breach the network. Web applications and traffic are in second place and represent an area of growing risk as part of an ever-expanding threat surface.
Organizations with cyber insurance were more likely to be affected by ransomware — 77% of organizations with cyber insurance were…
