Research from Emisoft has revealed that ransomware demand costs could surpass $1.4 billion in the U.S. in 2020. The report titled “The State of Ransomware in the U.S.: Report and Statistics 2019” was collaborated by around 450,000 incidents submitted to ransomware identification service ID Ransomware in 2019.
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The report reveals the overall cost of ransomware attacks has reached a high of $9.3 billion in the U.S. Researchers mentioned the average ransomware demand is around $84,000, and 33% of victims are paying the ransom. Emisoft conducted a 10-country investigation to assess the cost worldwide of ransomware demands and downtime taken both separately and together. Italy came within a half of the U.S. in the cost of ransomware demands for 2020, among the countries like Germany, UK, Spain, and France that Emisoft examined. The worldwide cost to ransomware victims could range from $6 billion to $25 billion for all ten countries measured, found the report. Keeping in mind that downtime is experienced whether or not a ransom is paid when the average downtime period is added to the cost of a ransomware attack, the totals rise significantly and ranges widely from $42.4 billion to $169.8 billion worldwide.
The report said that an average number of days for enterprises affected with a ransomware attack to restore their networks is more than 16 days. Approximately half of the respondents related to a type of ransomware called STOP has a below-average ransom demand and mainly affects home users.
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Some of the key findings of and forecasts by Emisoft regarding ransomware and downtime costs for the top five countries for 2020:
- France: $121 million – $485 million
- Italy: $1.1 billion – $4.3 billion
- Spain: $830 million – $3.3 billion
- UK: $469 million – $1.9 billion
- Germany: $1 billion – $4 billion
Ransomware attacks have evolved over the years, owing to more stealthy and sophisticated techniques. Emisoft’s report stated that costs associated with ransomware demands and downtime could be significant over- or underestimate. Ransomware presents a significant risk to election security; hence organizations must act quickly and decisively to address the problem and mitigate risks. The trends observed over the past year indicate that these attacks are not going away and are likely to increase in frequency.
