How Can a Small Business Defend Against Ransomware?

Ransomware has held everyone from multi-billion-dollar companies to small businesses hostage to their fiendish criminal exploits. And as the number of ransomware attacks continues to increase, businesses, big or small, have to be more aware of the digital ecosystem in which they operate.

Small Business Defending Against Ransomware

Two infographics developed by NowSourcing for Pondurance.com and CyberSecurityDegrees.com look at how businesses can protect themselves from ransomware.

According to the information on these infographics, ransomware is on the rise. And it is costing companies more than $20 billion annually with recovery costs reaching around $2 million per business in 2021. Moreover, three in four or 75% of organizations will face attacks in the next five years. Not surprisingly, the growth of this criminal activity is on the rise because it is effective, lucrative, and easy, according to Pondurance.

The infographic from Pondurance is titled Human VS. Tech: Why You Need Both To Defend Against Ransomware. And it is a fact that you need both to effectively combat ransomware. The company says businesses are struggling to keep up because of the lack of talent, planning, and budget. Close to two-thirds or 62% of SMB lack in-house cyber security experts. Another 60% of them don’t have cybersecurity in place, and 58% have an IT budget that is less than $10,000.

The infographic below provides some great information about ransomware you can surely use for your business.

image: pondurance.com

Stopping Ransomware Before It Starts

The CyberSecurityDegrees infographic also provides some great information about ransomware and how to stop it. According to this infographic, the cost of ransomware can be catastrophic to businesses.

Well-executed ransomware can halt business operations, costing up to 23X more than the ransom itself. The company points out claims ranging from $2,500 to $6.5 million have been documented, with an average claim of $424,000. However, it is important to note business interruption loss is commonly left out of the equation. So, it is very likely they are much more than the claim.

CyberSecurityDegrees says the average ransom demand for small businesses is $108,000 and $225,000 for large businesses. This infographic has different sets of data addressing ransomware, take a look at it below so together you can have a comprehensive view of the ransomware threat landscape.