47% of hacked SE Asia firms paid ‘ransom’

MANILA  -The average cost to recover sensitive information illegally obtained by hackers rose by 6 percent to an all-time high of $3.05 million this year in Southeast Asia, including the Philippines, as nearly half of the organizations succumbed to paying ransom to take back crucial data held hostage by perpetrators.

This is according to technology company IBM Security’s “Cost of Data Breach” report, which noted that 95 percent of the respondents in the region dealt with multiple cybersecurity incidents.

The study revealed that some entities were “apprehensive” in bringing in law enforcement when resolving ransomware attacks because they feared it would just make the situation complicated. “Participating organizations that did not involve law enforcement experienced breach life cycles that were 33-days longer on average,” IBM said.

Ransomware victims who took the matter into their own hands paid $470,000 more to recover their data. The survey showed that 37 percent of the respondents chose to resolve the attack by themselves while 47 percent reportedly paid the ransom.

READ:

PH warned vs more persistent, ingenious hackers

Cyberattacks could be costing PH firms P6B daily