Ransomware attacks hit 71% of Nigerian organisations with most paying ransom

A survey by Sophos shows that 71 percent of Nigerian organizations were hit with ransomware in 2021, up from 22 percent in 2020.

44 percent of the organizations that had data encrypted paid the ransom to get their data back, even though they had other means of data recovery, such as backups.

The report summarizes the impact of ransomware on 5,600 mid-sized organizations in 31 countries across Europe, America, Asia-Pacific and Central Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

The survey shows that, globally, the proportion of victims paying the ransom continues to increase, even when they may have other options available. There could be several reasons for this, including incomplete backups or the desire to prevent stolen data from appearing on a public leak site.

“In the aftermath of a ransomware attack there is often intense pressure to get back up and running as soon as possible. Restoring encrypted data using backups can be a difficult and time-consuming process, so it can be tempting to think that paying a ransom for a decryption key is a faster option. It’s also an option fraught with risk,” Chester Wisniewski, principal research scientist at Sophos, said.

According to the report, organizations do not know what the attackers might have done, such as adding backdoors, copying passwords and more. If organizations don’t thoroughly clean up the recovered data, they will end up with all that potentially toxic material in their network and potentially exposed to a repeat attack.

The main findings of the State of Ransomware 2022 global survey from the Nigerian respondents, which covers ransomware incidents experienced during 2021, as well as related cyber insurance issues, include the impact of a ransomware attack can be immense.

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The average cost to recover from the most recent ransomware attack in 2021 was $3.43 million. It took on average one month to recover from the damage and disruption.

97 percent of organizations said the attack had impacted their ability to operate, and 96 percent of the victims said they had lost business and/or revenue because of the attack

Also, many organizations rely on cyber insurance to help them recover from a ransomware attack. 81 percent of mid-sized organizations had cyber insurance that covers them in the event of a ransomware attack and in 97 percent of incidents, the insurer paid some or all the costs incurred

91 percent of those with cyber insurance said that their experience of getting it has changed over the last 12 months, with higher demands for cybersecurity measures, more complex or expensive policies and fewer organizations offering insurance protection

“The findings suggest we may have reached a peak in the evolutionary journey of ransomware, where attackers’ greed for ever higher ransom payments is colliding head on with a hardening of the cyber insurance market as insurers increasingly seek to reduce their ransomware risk and exposure,” Wisniewski said.

In recent years, it has become increasingly easy for cybercriminals to deploy ransomware, with almost everything available as-a-service. Second, many cyber insurance providers have covered a wide range of ransomware recovery costs, including the ransom, likely contributing to ever higher ransom demands.

However, the results indicate that cyber insurance is getting tougher and in the future ransomware victims may become less willing or less able to pay sky high ransoms. The report stated that this is unlikely to reduce the overall risk of a ransomware attack.

“Ransomware attacks are not as resource intensive as some other, more hand-crafted cyberattacks, so any return is a return worth grabbing and cybercriminals will continue to go after the low hanging fruit,” Wisniewski said.