Cohesity: Most Companies Break Their ‘Do Not Pay’ Ransomware Policies

Research commissioned by Cohesity, a San Jose-based data security company, suggests that today’s pervasive cyberattacks are forcing the majority of companies to pay ransoms and break their ‘do not pay’ policies, with data recovery deficiencies compounding the problem. The research polled from over 900 IT and Security decision-makers shows that most companies have paid a ransom in the last two years, and the vast majority expect the threat of cyberattacks to increase significantly in 2024. Nearly 8 in 10 respondents said their company had been the ‘victim of a ransomware attack’ between June and December. 

The cyber threat landscape is expected to get even worse in 2024, with 96% of respondents saying the threat of cyberattacks to their industry will increase this year and over 7 in 10 (71%) predicting it will increase by more than 50%. 

All respondents said they need over 24 hours to recover data and restore business processes. Just 7% said their company could recover data and restore business processes within 1-3 days. An additional 35% said they could recover and restore in 4 to 6 days, while 34% need 1-2 weeks. Almost 1 in 4 (23%) need over 3 weeks to recover data and restore business processes.

Unsurprisingly, 94% of respondents said their company would pay a ransom to recover data and restore business processes, while 5% said ‘maybe, depending on the ransom amount.’ More than 2 in 3 (67%) said their company would be willing to pay over $3 million to recover data and restore business processes, with 35% of respondents saying their company would be willing to pay over $5 million. 

Channel Impact^®

The data point out the need to treat ransomware as a likely certainty for channel partners and their customers.