Ransomware attacks appear to be developing into a lucrative business for cyber criminals in Germany. A study commissioned by the digital association Bitkom surveyed more than 1,000 companies about their experiences with ransomware. This is software that is deliberately smuggled into computers in order to blackmail companies with the locked data in return for a ransom.
One in eight companies paid ransom
The results of the Bitkom study show: In the past twelve months, six out of ten companies (60 percent) have fallen victim to ransomware. 31 percent of the companies suffered damage. The negative consequences included production downtime, costs for IT service providers or payments to the perpetrators.
One in eight affected companies (12 percent) gave in to the financial demands – and paid the ransom demanded. A majority of 76 percent, however, stated that they did not respond to the financial demands. 12 percent did not want to provide any information on this.
According to Felix Kuhlenkamp, security policy officer at Bitkom, a company should not pay the ransom under any circumstances. Kuhlenkamp explains: “On the one hand, it will finance the next attacks by the perpetrators, which are usually organized crime. On the other hand, the malware is often so poorly programmed that the perpetrators cannot completely reverse the encryption.”
Back to normality after the attack
Is there a chance of restoring the data without paying a ransom? Ten percent of the companies surveyed received their data back from the perpetrators without paying. There were still effects, however: 17 percent of the companies stated that the cyber attack had caused massive restrictions to their business operations. For a minority of one percent, the stolen data was published. 54 percent increased their security measures following the attack.
In order to restore their own processes and data to normal after the attack, one in five companies (18 percent) hired an external service provider. One in eight companies would have liked to have this support, but could not find a suitable provider. Only 21 percent of companies initiated criminal prosecution through the law enforcement authorities.
About the study:
The survey was conducted by Bitkom Research on behalf of the digital association Bitkom. 1,003 companies with 10 or more employees and an annual turnover of at least one million euros in Germany were surveyed. The survey was conducted by telephone between the 16th and 24th calendar weeks of 2024.
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