More Australian firms are panicking and paying ransoms
Australian businesses are among those most likely to pay ransom to retrieve or protect stolen information; More than half admit to giving money to online criminals.
This trend comes despite mandatory ransomware payment reporting laws and many companies considering themselves prepared for online attacks.
Cybersecurity firm Veeam published the findings of a global study on Thursday; This research found that almost two in three Australian companies are expected to be attacked online during the year.
The news comes a year after ransomware payments were reported to become mandatory for companies with annual turnover of more than $3 million or that manage critical infrastructure.
The report, called the Veeam Data Resilience Study, surveyed more than 4,200 business leaders in Australia, the UK, the US, Germany, France and New Zealand about ransomware attacks.
It turns out that Australian organizations are likely to pay ransom; 52 percent admitted that their organization meets criminals’ demands, compared to the global average of 40 percent.
A majority of Australian executives (62 per cent) expected their business to be hacked or suffer a data breach in 2026, and almost as many (61 per cent) said they would consider paying ransom in the future.
Veeam head of systems engineering John Wood said a number of factors, including the prevalence of cyber insurance, made Australia a lucrative target for ransomware gangs.
“Australia is more affected and affected more than many other places,” he told AAP.
“We’re very advanced in terms of technology, so there’s a bigger target for threat actors that might come after us, and… we’re pretty well insured.”
Despite numerous ransomware attacks and payments, most executives (81 percent) said their company had a plan to protect their data in the event of an attack.
Mr Wood said many of these strategies were untested or tested under the wrong conditions, and business leaders were making decisions under pressure in the 24 hours following an online attack.
“A lot of people are testing (but) maybe they’re testing at 2pm on a Tuesday instead of 11.30pm on a Saturday, and three quarters of the team are on holiday and one of the key decision makers is offline,” he said.
“There’s a big difference between those who test in real-life situations and those who do an exercise and tick a box.”
He said more organizations should take the time to think about contingency plans, including who to contact in case of emergency, and consider assigning a negotiator to bid for smaller fees and more time in extreme cases.
Ransomware attacks represented 11 per cent of all incidents reported to the Australian Cyber Security Center in the last financial year.
