2021 State of Ransomware Report Reveals 83% of Victims Paid to Get Data Restored

Redwood City, Calif. and Washington D.C. ― October 19, 2021 ― ThycoticCentrify, a leading provider of cloud identity security solutions formed by the merger of Privileged Access Management (PAM) leaders Thycotic and Centrify, today released new research confirming that ransomware has become a preferred method for cyberattacks, with nearly two out of three companies (64%) surveyed admitting to being victims of a ransomware attack in the last 12 months.

The report, titled “2021 State of Ransomware Survey & Report: Preventing and Mitigating the Skyrocketing Costs and Impacts of Ransomware Attacks,” is based on survey responses from 300 U.S.-based IT business decision-makers. It further reveals that more than four out of five (83%) ransomware attack victims felt they had no choice but to pay ransom demands to restore their data.

The report highlights how organizations are responding to the growing threats from ransomware attacks, including:

• 72% have seen cybersecurity budgets increase due to ransomware threats
• 93% are allocating special budget to fight ransomware threats
• 50% said they experienced loss of revenue and reputational damage from an attack
• 42% indicated they had lost customers as a result of an attack

"Our research shows ransomware is a threat to organizations of all sizes and levels of sophistication,” said Art Gilliland, CEO at ThycoticCentrify. “The first line of defense should be solutions that secure privileged access, including multi-factor authentication (MFA) and other methods of enforcing Zero Trust, to keep would-be cyber criminals contained and limit the damage they can inflict.”

The report highlights how organizations are responding to the growing threats from ransomware attacks, including:

1. With so many organizations victimized by ransomware attacks, it is more important than ever that organizations prioritize creating an incident response plan to avoid being added to the growing list that have paid the ransom demand.
2. While increasing cybersecurity budgets for network and cloud security solutions, organizations must also understand and prioritize the requirements for preventing exploit escalation with PAM security that enforces least privileged access.
3. Preventing ransomware attacks by practicing basic cybersecurity hygiene such as regular backups, timely patching, MFA, and password protection is essential. However, PAM policies that make least privilege access a priority enable security teams to identify the attack entry point, understand what happened, help remediate, and ultimately protect restored data.

A complimentary copy of the full 14-page report can be downloaded at https://thycotic.com/resources/ransomware-survey-and-report-2021/.

Related Link: 2021 State of Ransomware Survey & Report Infographic

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About ThycoticCentrify
ThycoticCentrify is a leading cloud identity security vendor, enabling digital transformation at scale. ThycoticCentrify’s industry-leading privileged access management (PAM) solutions reduce risk, complexity, and cost while securing organizations’ data, devices, and code across cloud, on-premises, and hybrid environments. ThycoticCentrify is trusted by over 14,000 leading organizations around the globe including over half of the Fortune 100, and customers include the world’s largest financial institutions, intelligence agencies, and critical infrastructure companies.

© 2021 Thycotic Software, LLC and Centrify Corporation 2021. ®Centrify and ®Thycotic are registered trademarks of Centrify Corporation and Thycotic Software, LLC respectively. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.