Introducing Retrospect Backup 18.5: Now with Anomaly Detection

Perhaps one of the biggest threats to organizations in 2022 pertains to cybersecurity. Hacking, data breaches, and ransomware attacks are on the rise, and it’s no longer just the large corporations who are at risk. While those in the industry may know about the larger attacks and ransomware payouts-like the insurance company that handed over a $40 million ransom in 2021 to regain its systems-these are not the only organizations that may find themselves the focus of a ransomware incident.

It’s the small and medium businesses who are falling prey to these kinds of attacks. In fact, according to Coveware, most targets are now small and medium-sized businesses:

These attacks can have costly consequences; 46 percent of small businesses have experienced a ransomware attack and 73 percent ultimately pay a ransom with no guarantee of restoring their data. Of these, 13 percent of the polled small businesses reported paying over $100,000 to cybercriminals and 43 percent paid a sum between $10,000 and $50,000.

Ultimately? These large ransoms aren’t always successful-17 percent of hacked small businesses that paid their attackers recovered only some of the company’s data. But it isn’t just the payouts that add up; ransomware attacks can add up when it comes to downtime for service, as well as working downtime, insurance costs, and a damaged reputation.

What may be even worse is that now the tech industry is encountering a new foe: The emergence of Ransomware-as-a-Service. Unlike other as-a-Service solutions, this business model centers around for-hire ransomware attacks, where bad actors leverage their encryption tools, ransom collection capabilities, and sophisticated tactics, techniques, and procedures, for a cut of the profit. It’s a challenging time to think about security.

It’s estimated that with these and other like-minded ransomware efforts, the cost of ransomware damage across the globe hit $20 billion in 2021; a rate 57 times higher than what it was in 2015. The risk of ransomware or some other cyberattack seems to grow exponentially by the year. With this in mind, organizations must seek out a reliable, secure way to store and back up their data with data backup and recovery tools they can trust.

Originally published at https://www.retrospect.com.