A recent survey from CrowdStrike highlighted the continued spread of ransomware and the need for acceleration of both digital and security transformation. In its “2020 CrowdStrike Global Security Attitude Survey,” the cybersecurity firm revealed the growing concern of nation-state intrusions or ransomware attacks, with 56% of organizations reporting a ransomware attack in the last year.
“The COVID-19 pandemic catalyzed increasing concerns around ransomware attacks, with many organizations resorting to paying the ransom. The shifts from a question of if an organization will experience a ransomware attack to a matter of when an organization will inevitably pay a ransom,” the report global attitude stated.
Key Findings
- Among those hit by ransomware, 27% chose to pay the ransom, costing organizations on average $1.1 million owed to hackers.
- Concern around ransomware attacks continues to increase, with the stark increase in this year’s findings (54%) compared to 2019 (42%) and 2018 (46%).
- 71% of cybersecurity experts globally are more worried about ransomware attacks due to COVID-19.
- The APAC region is suffering the most when paying the ransom with the highest average payout at $1.18 million, followed by EMEA at $1.06 million and the U.S. at $0.99 million.
- Nearly, 73% believe nation-state sponsored cyberattacks will pose the single biggest threat to organizations like theirs in 2021. In fact, concerns around nation-states have steadily increased, as 63% of cybersecurity experts view nation-states as one of the cyber criminals most likely to cause concern, consistently rising from 2018 (54%) and 2019 (59%).
- 89% are fearful that growing international tensions are likely to result in a considerable increase in cyberthreats for organizations.
- 61% of respondents’ organizations have spent more than $1 million on digital transformation over the past three years.
- 90% of respondents’ organizations have spent a minimum of $100,000 to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- 66% of respondents have modernized their security tools and/or increased the rollout of cloud technologies as employees have moved to work remotely.
- 78% of respondents have a more positive outlook on their organization’s overarching security strategy and architecture over the next 12 months.
Michael Sentonas, Chief Technology Officer at CrowdStrike, said, “This year has been especially challenging for organizations of all sizes around the world, with both the proliferation of ransomware and growing tensions from nation-state actors posing a massive threat to regions worldwide. Now more than ever, organizations are finding ways to rapidly undergo digital transformation to bring their security to the cloud to keep pace with modern-day threats and secure their ‘work from anywhere’ operations.”
