Bob Zukis – Cybercriminals have figured out that fencing stolen data is a lot more work than just holding it hostage. It also doesn’t pay as well. Ransomware is a rapidly growing cyber threat, and attacks overall were up 25% in Q1.

Ransomware continues to proliferate as an effective cybersecurity threat because it works. It gets hackers paid. 

The average ransomware payment is up 33% from Q4 of 2019 to $111,605. But the real cost is the impact on business, such as lost revenue or employee productivity or the impact to public services. The average business downtime due to a ransomware attack is 15 days. 

The city of Florence, Alabama, was hit on June 5^th with a ransomware attack and hackers demanded $300,000, which city officials said they’d likely pay to keep their citizens information off the internet.  Read On: