Datto's annual European State of the Channel Ransomware report says that the average ransom requested of SMEs by hackers is increasing and now sitting at around £2,000. More expensive, however is the downtime related to such attacks which is increasing by 300% in Europe, year-on-year, higher than the global average of 200%.
However, the associated system downtime from ransomware is hitting small organisations even harder - costing European businesses around £107,956 on average, an eye-watering 53 times more than the average ransom requested in 2019, and higher than the global average of 23 times. 54% of MSPs report that their clients suffered a loss of business productivity after a ransomware attack, followed by 34% suffering business-threatening downtime, alongside citing lost data and/or devices and decreasing client profitability (both 33%), and infections spreading to other devices on the network (32%).
Professional services industry is currently the most affected by ransomware, it says, with 47% of MSPs reported that the professional services industry is the most affected by ransomware attacks, followed by construction and manufacturing (35%), retail (25%), non-profit (22%). The telecom and energy / utilities industries appear to be the least affected with only 3% and 1% of MSPs reporting attacks in these industries.
MSPs themsleevs are also targeted by ransomware attacks, which remains the most prominent malware threat to businesses across Europe (83%). 61% of MSPs reported ransomware attacks against their clients in the first half of 2019, compared to the global average of 56% and 19% of those were multiple attacks in a single day, again higher than the global average of 15%. For the fourth consecutive year, MSPs report CryptoLocker as the top ransomware variant attacking clients (47%) followed by WannaCry (44%). However, the report also revealed that SMEs aren’t the only businesses being targeted by hackers – 3 in 5 MSPs agree that their own businesses are being increasingly targeted by ransomware attacks.
- For more insights and the latest on technology issues and security management, come to Channel-Sec, the event for resellers and channel security specialists, where Datto is Diamond sponsor.
London March 19 - https://www.channel-sec.com/#agenda - Hear from experts including IDC's Rory Duncan and ex-hacker Cal Leeming on what really needs to be done to protect clients: https://www.channel-sec.com/#home
