Half of Australian ransomware victims paid up: survey

Half of Australian businesses falling victim to ransomware attacks in the past two years paid the ransom, a new survey from Cloudflare suggests.

The survey found high rates of ransomware payment despite 50% of Australian respondents having issued public pledges not to give in to ransomware attacks. The most common reasons for paying ransom include customer pressure (30%). But Australian respondents were less likely to have paid a ransom than their regional peers, with a massive 70% of regional companies admitting to have paid ransoms.

Australian respondents also cite high rates of resilience against ransomware threats, with 85% of respondents reporting conducting employee ransomware training, 85% implementing two-factor authentication and 80% using anti-malware software.

The survey also found that 41% of Australian respondents report their organisation experiencing data breaches in the past 12 months, with 33% indicating they suffered from 11 or more breaches. The industries that saw the most breaches during the period were manufacturing (63%), transportation (57%) and education (48%). In addition, 92% of Australian respondents indicated that they are concerned about the potential for AI to increase the sophistication and severity of breaches.

Cloudflare Head of Australia and New Zealand Steve Bray said the findings demonstrate the pressures security teams in the region are facing amid a rapidly evolving and expanding threat landscape.

“In our current environment the impact of cyber attacks is being felt at every level, and cybersecurity leaders face growing scrutiny coupled with limited resources. Moreover, cybersecurity challenges are becoming increasingly complex to manage,” he said. “The intricate IT environments and architectures they oversee expose them to numerous threats. Cybersecurity leaders need to continuously evaluate their existing resources, tools and strategies, so they can be empowered to know what is needed to protect their organisations from evolving cyberthreats.”

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