Posted by New Delhi: Manufacturing paid the highest average ransomware payment of $2,036,189, as per Sophos’ new sectoral survey report. Across all sectors, manufacturing reported the top average ransomware payment revealed in this new study.
Probably, that is one of the reasons — why cybercriminals target this sector with ransomware in recent years.
Sophos’ “The State of Ransomware in Manufacturing and Production,” survey report found that the manufacturing sector reported the highest average ransom payment across all sectors—$2,036,189 versus $812,360, respectively.
In addition, 66% of manufacturing and production organisations surveyed reported a 7% increase in the complexity of cyberattacks, and 61% reported a 4% increase in the volume of cyberattacks when compared to the previous year’s survey.
Manufacturing is an attractive sector to target for cybercriminals due to the privileged position it occupies in the supply chain, according to John Shier, Senior security advisor of Sophos.
“Outdated infrastructure and lack of visibility into the OT environment provides attackers with an easy way in and a launching pad for attacks inside a breached network,” Shier explained why this sector is the target of ransomware attacks by cybercriminals.
“The convergence of IT and OT is increasing the attack surface and exacerbating an already complex threat environment,” Shier added.
While having reliable backups is an important part of recovery, Shier pointed out that today’s ransomware threat requires a detailed response plan that includes human-led threat-hunting capabilities.
“Complex attacks require comprehensive protection, which, for many organisations, will include the addition of managed detection and response (MDR) teams who are trained to look for and neutralize active attackers,” emphasized Shier.
While manufacturing and production had the highest average ransom payment, the percentage of organisations that actually paid the ransom was among the lowest across sectors (33% versus 46% for the cross-sector average).
The State of Ransomware 2022 survey polled 5,600 IT professionals in mid-sized organisations across 31 countries, including 419 respondents from the manufacturing and production sector.