Nine-in-ten organizations already attacked by ransomware would pay ransom if targeted again

Kaspersky took a snapshot of business executives’ attitudes towards ransomware.

18 May 2022

The new Kaspersky report, “How business executives perceive ransomware threat” discovered that in 88% of organizations previously attacked by ransomware, business leaders would choose to pay a ransom if faced with another attack. Across organizations that have yet to be victimized, only 67% would be willing to pay,and they would be less inclined to do so immediately. While ransomware remains a prominent threat, with two-thirds (64%) of companies already having suffered an attack, paying ransom seems to be perceived by executives as a reliable way of addressing the issue. 

Ransomware has become something of a buzzword in the corporate world, with large attacks on enterprises appearing in headlines week after week and the number of attacks using ransomware almost doubling in 2021 alone. These statistics raise the question of how businesses will react in the event of an attack and what their attitudes towards paying ransoms to the criminals behind them will be. 

According to the report, if an organization has been the victim of ransomware in the past, they are increasingly likely to pay a ransom in the event of a new attack (88%). These companies are also more inclined to pay as soon as possible to get immediate access to their data (33% of previously attacked companies versus 15% of companies that have never been victimized), or to pay after only a couple of days of unsuccessful decrypting attempts (30% vs. 19%).