ransomware

Philippine companies paid $1.6 billion on average through the nose for ransomware attacks in 2022, making the country the third most-extorted by ransomware in the world next only to Japan and the Netherlands, according to cybersecurity firm Sophos.

Education institutions faced the highest data encryption rate (73%) compared to other sectors (65%), and the longest recovery time, with 7% taking at least three months to recover – almost double the average time for other sectors (4%).

In the Philippines, the average ransom payment was $1.6 million in 2021, 63% higher than 2020’s $820,000.

The Sophos survey showed that 95 % of Philippine companies agree their biggest security challenge in the next 24 months will be the awareness and education of employees and leadership.

According to Arcserve, even before a cyberattack occurs, companies should already create three copies of their valuable data — one primary copy and two backups.

According to IDC's latest survey, almost half (44%) of the respondents indicated the willingness to pay the ransom in hopes of retrieving affected files, either internally or through insurance payout.

In March, Arcserve announced its merger with StorageCraft, making the company one of the fifth largest data management and protection vendors around the world.

But, the propensity of Philippines organizations to pay the ransom (4%) is way lower than the worldwide average (32%), the report from Sophos said.

A new research study from software firm Veritas Technologies has found that consumers overwhelmingly believe businesses should stand up to hackers and refuse to pay ransoms.

Global survey shows the average cost of recovery is $1.4 million if organizations pay the ransom, $730,000 if they don’t.