Security News > 2024 > May > 97% of organizations hit by ransomware turn to law enforcement

According to the report, among organizations surveyed, 97% of those hit by ransomware over the past year engaged with law enforcement and/or official government bodies for help with the attack.

59% of those organizations that did engage with law enforcement found the process easy or somewhat easy.

Based on the survey, impacted organizations reached out to law enforcement and/or official government bodies for a range of assistance with ransomware attacks.

58% of those that had their data encrypted received help from law enforcement to recover their data from the ransomware attack.

"Companies have traditionally shied away from engaging with law enforcement for fear of their attack becoming public. If they are known to have been victimized it could impact their business reputation and make a bad situation worse. Victim shaming has long been a consequence of an attack, but we've made progress on that front, both within the security community and at the government level. New regulations on cyber incident reporting, for example, appear to have normalized engaging with law enforcement, and this survey data shows organizations are taking steps in the right direction," said Chester Wisniewski, director, Field CTO, Sophos.

"While improving cooperation and working with law enforcement after an attack are all good developments, we need to move from simply treating the symptoms of ransomware to preventing those attacks in the first place. Our most recent Active Adversary report showed that many organizations are still failing to implement key security measures that can demonstrably reduce their overall risk profile; this includes patching their devices in a timely manner and enabling multi-factor authentication. From the law enforcement side, while they have had some recent successes with takedowns and arrests from LockBit to Qakbot, these successes have proven to be more akin to temporary disruptions than longer term or permanent wins."

News URL

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2024/05/08/ransomware-law-enforcement-help/