The most terrifying cyber-crime that can hit Birmingham businesses now costs an average of £225,000 to fix, according to new stats.
Ransomware is where all of a business’s data is encrypted and held to 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 Mark Dodds, of Compex IT.
“We’ve watched in horror as ransomware has become bigger and bigger in the past few years,” he said.
“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.”
A threat intelligence team in the USA revealed the average payment following a ransomware attack last year went up 171% to £225,917. That’s compared to £83,228 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.
Mark added: “All businesses in Birmingham need to be more aware of ransomware, and ensure that criminals can’t access their network.
“All it takes is one person to click one link in one bad email. And the damage can be done. Ransomware terrifies professionals like me; and it should terrify all business owners and managers round here.”
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