Devastating ransomware attacks on critical organizations and infrastructure like JBS and the Colonial Pipeline have escalated ransomware awareness to the highest levels. In fact, due to increasing geopolitical tensions, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has issued a “Shields Up” message to every U.S. organization, including federal agencies, urging them to adopt a heightened posture when it comes to cybersecurity and protecting their most critical assets. In particular, CISA recommends that organizations assess their resilience by testing backup procedures to ensure that critical systems and data can be rapidly restored if your organization is impacted by ransomware or a destructive cyberattack.
There is good reason to be alarmed. Consider these statistics:
- 69% of organizations were compromised by ransomware.
- Just 8% of those that paid a ransom got all their data back.
- The average downtime due to a ransomware attack is 21 days.
- The average cost of remediating a single ransomware attack is $1.85 million.
- The total cost of ransomware was $20.8 billion — just for US healthcare organizations!
