78 percent of Indian organizations hit by ransomware attacks last year

Cybercrime is increasing day by day, and even big tech companies like Microsoft and NVIDIA are facing the music. A report by Sophos Group, a British security software and hardware company, reveals that the ransomware attacks hit 78 percent of Indian organizations in 2021.

Sophos surveyed 5,600 mid-sized organizations worldwide to get insights from 31 countries in January and February this year.

The survey also included 300 Indian companies, and it found a significant increase in ransomware attacks compared to 68% in 2020. The report said that Indian firms paid an average ransom of $1,198,475 (roughly Rs. 9,155 crore) to retrieve the encrypted data.

“66% of organizations were hit by ransomware in the last year, up from 37% in 2020. This is a 78% increase over the course of a year, demonstrating that adversaries have become considerably more capable of executing the most significant attacks at scale. This likely also reflects the growing success of the Ransomware-as-a-Service model, which significantly extends the reach of ransomware by reducing the skill level required to deploy an attack,” the report stated.

GETTING BETTER

Sophos, however, also revealed in its report that organizations are “getting better” at restoring data after an attack.

“As ransomware has become more prevalent, organizations have gotten better at dealing with the aftermath of an attack. Almost all organizations hit by ransomware in the last year (99%) now get some encrypted data back, up slightly
from 96% last year,” the report said.

Cybersecurity threat requires the attention of the highest order, and so one is safe from its breach, even Microsoft.

WARNING

In March, Microsoft confirmed it was hacked by the extortion group Lapsus$, who gained limited access to the source code for Bing search engine and Cortana voice assistant.

Saket Modi, the co-founder of Safe Security, has warned India to “strengthen” its national cybersecurity policies and practices.

“India is a global leader in technology adoption and needs to adopt a robust cybersecurity incident reporting and risk management framework. Much like the US, which is moving gears in adopting better cybersecurity practices, India too needs to strengthen its national cybersecurity policies and practices,” Saket Modi told the Indian Express.

WRITTEN BY

Team Eela

TechEela, the Bedrock of MarTech and Innovation, is a Digital Media Publication Website. We see a lot around us that needs to be told, shared, and experienced, and that is exactly what we offer to you as shots. As we like to say, “Here’s to everything you ever thought you knew. To everything, you never thought you knew”