The State of Ransomware Attacks

Oct 7, 2019

Small businesses can be especially vulnerable to ransomware. This infographic breaks down the current threat landscape and offers some tips on how to protect your network.

Ransomware attacks are skyrocketing, both on businesses and, increasingly, against local governments. There are different and evolving types of ransomware attacks, often beginning with something as simple as a malicious link in an email, which can leave organizations both large and small with crippled infrastructure and mounting costs to get their systems back.

Small business loan provider Quickbridge put together a white paper and infographic breaking down the state of ransomware attacks, particularly on vulnerable small businesses. The infographic below breaks down what ransomware is, how attacks occur, how to protect your infrastructure, and the staggering economic and security impact of ransomware attacks over the past several years.

Ransomware protection starts with knowing what kind of attack you’re dealing with; crypto ransomware encrypts your data and files until a decryption key is provided (after you pay up), whereas locker ransomware freezes users out of their entire operating system. The white paper cites that more than 4,000 attacks have occurred since 2016 and that nearly half of small businesses have been breached in the past year, with 39 percent of those malware attacks classified as ransomware.

Ransomware Graphic

As for the cost of all this: $11.9 billion in ransomware damages are projected globally by the end of 2019.

By Rob Marvin