{"id":3570,"date":"2020-05-11T07:54:05","date_gmt":"2020-05-11T12:54:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stratospherenetworks.com\/blog\/?p=3570"},"modified":"2020-05-08T09:11:18","modified_gmt":"2020-05-08T14:11:18","slug":"the-total-cost-of-ransomware-and-how-to-reduce-the-risk-and-impact-of-infection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stratospherenetworks.com\/blog\/the-total-cost-of-ransomware-and-how-to-reduce-the-risk-and-impact-of-infection\/","title":{"rendered":"The Total Cost of Ransomware and How to Reduce the Risk and Impact of Infection"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AThe pandemic caused by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has disrupted daily life around the world, with many still under orders to stay at home as much as possible and non-essential businesses shut down. Unfortunately, as we battle this horrific physical threat, we also must worry about virtual ones.<\/p>\n

COVID-19 and the Continued Rise of Ransomware<\/h2>\n

In a joint alert<\/a> issued last month, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the U.K. National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) noted that malicious actors have taken advantage of the current crisis and launched COVID-19-themed scams and cyberattacks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The pandemic-linked surge in cybercrime includes an increase in ransomware attacks<\/a>. Threat actors exploited the economic upheaval caused by the virus in the first quarter of 2020, and the average ransom payment shot up to $111,605, a 33 percent increase from the fourth quarter of 2019, according to a report from Coveware<\/a>. The top attack vectors were Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) compromise, email phishing and software vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n

This type of malware encrypts the victim\u2019s files, according to the CISA<\/a>. The cybercriminals then offer the decryption key in exchange for a ransom. These kinds of attacks aren\u2019t new: Ransomware is \u201cthe most pervasive cyber threat since 2005,\u201d according to the CSO article \u201cThe history of ransomware<\/a>.\u201d It became well-known a few years ago when the variants NotPetya and WannaCry wreaked havoc worldwide.<\/p>\n

Today, the most common types are Sodinokibi, Ryuk and Phobos \u2013 and the average ransom that attackers extract from victims via this form of malware has gone steadily up for seven consecutive quarters, by Coveware\u2019s calculations. The COVID-19 pandemic has, unfortunately, made this persistent IT security threat more severe, and it looks like we can expect this trend to continue.<\/p>\n

How Incident Response Services Can Save Your Business<\/h2>\n

Now more than ever, many businesses can\u2019t afford to experience extensive downtime because hackers have taken their data hostage via ransomware. The worst part of a ransomware attack isn\u2019t the ransom itself: It\u2019s your company getting taken out of commission for what could be weeks. With their files inaccessible, ransomware victims<\/a> suffer up to 15 days of downtime on average, as of Q1 2020, according to Coveware. Could your business survive an outage that long?<\/p>\n

The stalled productivity and reputation damage associated with ransomware infections often lead to catastrophic costs. That\u2019s why it\u2019s vital to have a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy in place and proactively implement solutions that ensure quick and effective remediation if you do experience an attack. In particular, the security experts we have on staff at Stratosphere Networks recommend incident response services<\/a>, including the following:<\/p>\n