Fewer organisations are worried about ransomware聽despite聽it being one of the most costly cyber-attacks.
A report by Barracuda Networks found that concern聽remains high, with 84 per cent聽of the 145 companies polled in聽Europe, the Middle East and Africa saying聽it is a worry.
However that聽compares with 91 per cent聽a year ago – and the proportion of organisations targeted by ransomware has fallen from 48 per cent last year to聽30 per cent聽this.
According to 32 per cent聽of organisations, ransomware remains the most expensive cyber threat聽to solve while the proportion of聽those electing to pay ransoms is聽up to 19聽per cent聽from three per cent a year ago.
Barracuda’s senior international vice president Chris Ross said businesses may be better equipped than they were a year ago and urged organisations to carry out regular back-ups of their data.
He referred to the ‘3-2-1 back-up rule’, which 聽recommends that organisations make three copies of all data:聽storing聽one on-premise, one in the cloud and one聽in an聽offsite environment.
鈥淏y backing up regularly, and adhering to the 3-2-1 backup rule, it is possible to significantly limit ransomware鈥檚 impact on an organisation and ensure that affected businesses are not forced into paying for a decryption key that may never be sent,鈥� he said.
Meanwhile emails are the聽most common聽entry point聽for ransomware as they were linked to聽74 per cent聽of attacks while web traffic and network traffic were each linked to 18 per cent.