Half of ransomware victims who pay the ransom don't get their data back: 5 things to know

Julie Spitzer -

Only about half of the organizations that suffered a ransomware attack in 2017 recovered their data after paying the ransom, according to a CyberEdge Group survey.

The research and marketing firm spoke with nearly 1,200 IT security pros in 17 countries about their experiences with cyberattacks last year.

Here are five survey insights.

1. Seventy-seven percent of the organizations surveyed suffered a form of cyberattack in 2017, which is down from 79 percent in 2016. This marks the first time in five years the percentage of organizations who were hit by a cyberattack declined.

2. Just over half (55 percent) of respondents fell victim to a ransomware infection in 2017, compared to 61 percent in 2016.

3. Of the organizations that suffered a ransomware attack, 38.7 percent of victims decided to pay the ransom demand. However, only 49.4 percent of those organizations actually recovered their data, as opposed to 86.9 percent of organizations that refused to pay the ransom and were able to recover their data.

4. Organizations ranked malware as their top concern, followed ransomware, phishing and credential abuse attack.

5. Cybersecurity-related budgets are expected to account for 12 percent of an organization's overall IT spend in 2018, which represents a 4.7 percent growth year-over-year.

Click here to download the complete report.

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