Nearly Half Of IT Directors Admit They Would Pay A Ransom

Half Of IT Directors Admit They Would Pay A Ransom

You may recall back in 2017 how the Wannacry malware virus had a huge impact on systems around the world. The virus proved to be one of the most successful in recent years with many low and high-level companies affected in some form or another. If you can’t remember, I’ll give you the quick gist. The Wannacry virus represented a relatively new form of malicious program known as ‘ransomware’. These programs are usually sent via e-mail and, on the surface, appear fairly legitimate. If you attempt to run the attachment, however, the program will begin encrypting all of the files on your system

Once this was done, you were left with 3 options. The first is to pay the virus maker an amount of money to get the code to unlock your system. The second is to pay an IT expert to attempt to remove it and/or recover your files. The final option is simply to write off all your documents as gone and beyond recovery.

During the attack, there were more than a few instances of companies simply paying the fine. In a report via ITProPortal, however, nearly half of all UK IT directors have admitted that if they were given this problem, they would probably pay the fine.

Why Pay The Fine?

It is a good question. I mean, surely if you paid it once these people are going to look to specifically target your company again? Well, the problem is that under guideline changes, companies who are affected by data breaches can be subject to fines much larger than the ransom request. As such, as crazy as it sounds, paying it makes more sense.

What Do We Think?

More than anything, I think the alarming factor in this report is the fact that 48% of IT directors said that they would just pay with another 30% saying that they would, at the very least, consider it. In other words, around 3 quarters of the IT Directors for UK companies admit that they would attempt to cover up a data breach rather than have it revealed.

Makes you think how many happen that are not reported.

What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!