Cyber-Security Operations
Expert Real-Time
Monitoring
We monitor emerging, real-time threats to your online sphere. Your emails, cloud-based storage, and users are the Achilles heel of your organization.
Ransom Demands
This is the obvious one, hackers want to get paid. According to Sophos’s State of Ransomware 2024 report, the average ransom payout was $812,360. Through their surveys, Coveware found a $850,700 average payout, and median payout of $200,000 in Q3 2023. According to IBM, ransom demand complete incident costs in 2022, rose in 2022 to 4.49M if you pay, and 5.12M if you do not. Ransomware breach’s costs are based on activities that will affect your business no matter if you pay or not, such as detection of the attack, loss of business due to system downtime, cost to notify customers and legal costs.
It is good to remember that these hackers are smart and they do their research on your company before offering a ransom. They will know what may hurt your business the most and what you can afford to pay out. The cost of a ransom varies based on the industry and size of the business, and it typically ranges from 1%-5% of annual revenue. Hackers may also offer incentives to pay faster.
Can your organization survive a large or prolonged system outage and a large financial payout to get access to your compromised data back? It is worth considering cyber insurance that will help with the payout of the ransom. Your insurance rates will vary based upon your ability to mitigate a cyber-attack. More on that later in this article. (Barnett, 2024)
Reputation Damage
When your company suffers a data breach, you will suffer some level of reputation damage. The tools and systems you have in place before the breach will help you mitigate the damage, and the lack of tools will be something you may have to explain.
If your organization suffers a data breach, you will have to share this information with your customers. Having a good plan for how you respond will be the most effective way to minimize damage. The more prepared you are for a data breach, the less likely it happens, and if it does, you will be able to share how you were prepared and what steps you are taking to reassure them your brand is trustworthy in the future.
Source: ITIC 2021 Hourly Cost of Downtime Survey Rising Downtime Costs