Paying ransomware attackers doesn’t pay off and often paints a bigger target on a victim’s back.
Eighty percent of ransomware victims that paid their attackers were hit a second time by the malware scourge.
New ransomware numbers come from a Cybereason’s April ransomware survey of 1,456 cybersecurity professionals.
“Why not hit the same company, demand a higher ransom, and get paid?” The report confirms not just the rise in ransomware incidents, something the recent Verizon DBIR documents explicitly, but a worrying new trend.
The attackers operate in a nation where paying a ransom by a business is a criminal offense, based on government rules tied to “Doing business” with an identified terrorist entity.
Of those repeat ransomware victims that paid, 44 percent paid again during a separate ransomware incident.
