“It’s one of the hardest cyber-crimes to undo. And these new stats show that the criminals are getting greedier and demanding more cash.”
Fort Lauderdale, FL – 05/06/2021: The most terrifying cyber-crime that can hit South Florida businesses now costs an average of $312,000 to fix, according to new stats.
Ransomware is where all of a business’s data is encrypted and held for ransom by criminals. They demand a huge fee to release it.
And the number of ransomware attacks here is shooting up, according to local data security expert Cesar Avila, of AVLA.net.
“We’ve watched in horror as ransomware has become bigger and bigger in the past few years,” he said.
A threat intelligence team revealed the average payment following a ransomware attack last year went up 171% to $312,493. That is compared to $115,123 in 2019.
What makes ransomware so difficult to undo is that criminals spend weeks, often months, preparing an attack.
They get into a business’s systems and slowly, quietly make changes, before launching their attack. These changes make it very difficult for an IT security company to undo the damage.
Cesar added: “All businesses in South Florida need to be more aware of ransomware and ensure criminals can’t access their network.
