Sophos notes a 500 percent increase in the number of ransoms paid by organisations in its 2024 State of Ransomware report.The mean ransom demanded by cybercriminals in South Africa is $975 675.
Ransomware is still a major threat for businesses with 69 percent of the 330 local companies surveyed saying such an attack hit them in the last year. While this is a decrease from the 2023 survey, it’s not all good news. The good news is that 43 percent of local companies that were struck by ransomware paid the ransom, much less than the global average of 56 percent. However, the fact that these criminals are getting paid is seemingly enough to inspire them to continue their work.
Sophos also asked how long it took for respondents to recover from an attack and the bad news is that South Africans are getting slower. Only 41 percent of those targeted in an attack recovered in a week, down from 53 percent in 2023 while 26 percent took between one and six months, an increase from 19 percent in 2023.