Barracuda: Many Ransomware Victims Hit Multiple Times

Barracuda Networks, a Campbell, California-based cloud security company, has issued a report showing that 73% of surveyed organizations have been hit with at least one successful ransomware attack in 2022 — and 38% say they were hit twice or more. Forty-two percent of those hit three times or more paid the ransom to restore encrypted data, compared to 31% of victims of a single attack. They were also less likely to use a data backup system to help them recover.

There were significant variations in the industries targeted by ransomware. For example, 98% of consumer services and 85% of energy, oil/gas, and utility organizations experienced at least one ransomware attack. The energy, oil/gas, and utility industries were also the most likely (53%) to report two or more ransomware incidents.

The findings show that for 69% of organizations, the ransomware attack started with a malicious email, such as a phishing email designed to steal credentials that would allow the attackers to breach the network. Web applications and traffic are in second place and represent an area of growing risk.

Organizations with cyber insurance were more likely to be affected by ransomware — 77% of organizations with cyber insurance were hit with at least one successful ransomware attack, compared to 65% without cyber insurance.

“The number of organizations affected by ransomware in 2022 likely reflects the widespread availability of low cost, accessible attack tools through ransomware-as-a-service offerings,” said Barracuda CTO Fleming Shi. “The relatively high proportion of repeat victims suggests that security gaps are not fully addressed after the first incident.”

To support the company’s 2023 Ransomware Insights Report, Barracuda commissioned an independent market researcher to conduct a global survey of IT managers, senior IT security managers, and senior IT and IT security decision-makers. There were 1,350 survey participants from a broad range of industries, including agriculture, biotechnology, construction, energy, government, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, telecommunications, wholesale, and others. Survey participants were from the U.S., Australia, India, and Europe. In Europe, respondents were from the United Kingdom, France, DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), Benelux (Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg), and the Nordics (Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden). The survey was fielded in December 2022.

Channel Impact^®
The channel can play an essential role in helping organizations to defend themselves against ransomware, through deep, multilayered security technologies that include advanced email protection and backup as well as threat hunting and extended detection and response (XDR) capabilities.