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The survey polled 5,400 IT decision makers in mid-sized organizations in 30 countries across Europe, the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Central Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

While the number of organizations that experienced a ransomware attack fell from 51% of respondents surveyed in 2020 to 37% in 2021, in the UAE, 38% of respondents mentioned a ransomware attack in the last one year, down from 49% in 2020. Globally,fewer organizations suffered data encryption as the result of a significant attack (54% in 2021 compared to 73% in 2020), while in the UAE it dropped to 50%, down from 78% in 2020. The new survey results reveal worrying upward trends, particularly in terms of the impact of a ransomware attack.

The main findings of the State of Ransomware 2021 global survey include:

• The average cost of remediating a ransomware attack more than doubled in the last 12 months. Globally, remediation costs, including business downtime, lost orders, operational costs, and more, grew from an average of $761,106 in 2020 to $1.85 million in 2021. This means that the average cost of recovering from a ransomware attack is now 10 times the size of the ransom payment, on average. In the UAE, the average cost of remediating a ransomware attack US$517,961in 2021, compared to $696,305 in 2020

• The average ransom paid was $170,404. While $3.2 million was the highest payment out of those surveyed, the most common payment was $10,000. Ten organizations paid ransoms of $1 million or more

Globally,the number of organizations that paid the ransom increased from 26% in 2020 to 32% in 2021, although fewer than one in 10 (8%) managed to get back all of their data. In the Middle East, 28% of the organizations hit by ransomware paid a ransom

• More than half (54%) of respondents believe cyberattacks are now too advanced for their IT team to handle on their own

• Extortion without encryption is on the rise. A small, but important 7% said that their data was not encrypted, but they were held to ransom anyway, possibly because the attackers had managed to steal their information. In 2020, this figure was 3%

“Recovering from a ransomware attack can take years and is about so much more than just decrypting and restoring data,” said Wisniewski. “Whole systems need to be rebuilt from the ground up and then there is the operational downtime and customer impact to consider, and much more. Further, the definition of what constitutes a ‘ransomware’ attack is evolving. For a small, but significant minority of respondents, the attacks involved payment demands without data encryption. This could be because they had anti-ransomware technologies in place to block the encryption stage or because the attackers simply chose not to encrypt the data. It is likely that the attackers were demanding payment in return for not leaking stolen information online. A recent example of this approach involved the Clop ransomware gang and a known financially-motivated threat actor hitting around a dozen alleged victims with extortion-only attacks.

Sophos recommends the following six best practices to help defend against ransomware and related cyberattacks:

1. Assume you will be hit. Ransomware remains highly prevalent. No sector, country or organization size is immune from the risk. It’s better to be prepared, but not hit, rather than the other way round

2. Make backups and keep a copy offline. Backups are the main method organizations surveyed used to recover their data after an attack. Opt for the industry standard approach of 3:2:1 (three sets of backups, using two different media, one of which is kept offline)

3. Deploy layered protection. As more ransomware attacks also involve extortion, it is more important than ever to keep adversaries out in the first place. Use layered protection to block attackers at as many points as possible across an estate

4. Combine human experts and anti-ransomware technology. The key to stopping ransomware is defense in depth that combines dedicated anti-ransomware technology and human-led threat hunting. Technology provides the scale and automation an organization needs, while human experts are best able to detect the tell-tale tactics, techniques and procedures that indicate an attacker is attempting to get into the environment. If you don’t have the skills in house, look at enlisting the support of a specialist cybersecurity company – Security Operation Centers (SOCs) are now realistic options for organizations of all sizes

5. Don’t pay the ransom. Easy to say, but far less easy to do when an organization has ground to a halt due to a ransomware attack. Independent of any ethical considerations, paying the ransom is an ineffective way to get data back. If you do decide to pay, bear in mind that the adversaries will restore, on average, only two-thirds of your files

6. Have a malware recovery plan. The best way to stop a cyberattack from turning into a full breach is to prepare in advance. Organizations that fall victim to an attack often realize they could have avoided significant financial loss and disruption, if they had an incident response plan in place.

The State of Ransomware 2021 survey report is available in full on Sophos.com