Malwarebytes Research: 1 Out of 3 SMEs in Singapore Victims of Ransomware

Malwarebytes Research: 1 Out of 3 SMEs in
Singapore Victims of Ransomware

Ransomware Attack Downtime, Not Ransom Demand,
is the Business Killer

Singapore, – 1 August, 2017 – Malwarebytes™, the
leading advanced malware prevention and remediation solution, released its
“Second Annual State of Ransomware Report” today. The multi-country study
surveyed 1,054 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) across Singapore, France,
U.K., Germany, Australia, and North America. The report, conducted by Osterman
Research, explores ransomware attack frequency, impacts of attacks in SMB
environments, costs of attacks, attitudes towards ransom payments, preparedness
and more.

Ransomware is a relatively common problem for
SMEs in Singapore, with the research revealing that more than one-third, 35%,
of Singapore-based SMEs having experienced a ransomware attack in the last
year. Close to a fifth (21%) of those who had been hit by ransomware had to
cease all business operations immediately, and 11% lost revenue as a direct
result of the attack.

The impact of ransomware is often measured in
terms of cash lost through ransomware payments. However, the report finds that
downtime caused by ransomware can have a more significant impact on one’s
business. The majority of cybercriminals (53%) who strike SMEs in Singapore
with ransomware ask for payments of less than USD 1,000. With only 7% asking
for sums more than USD 10,000.

It seems that most of the pain incurred from
being a ransomware victim can be tied to either the loss of files, with 33% of
SMEs who refused to pay the ransom losing access to files as a result, or the
downtime that it causes. More than 61% of companies in Singapore hit by
ransomware, experienced downtime of more than 9 hours from a single incident of
ransomware; the equivalent to a full working day.

It is clear that SMEs in Singapore view
ransomware as a major problem, with ransomware ranking as the top security
problem for SMEs along with malware infiltration thorugh email; 72% of
respondents indicated they are critical problems. This was followed by email
phishing (70%) and malware infiltration via web browsing (64%). The bottom
three concerns were: insider theft of data (55%), phishing through social media
(39%) and the physical theft of laptops and mobile devices (23%).

Despite being a top concern for SMEs in
Singapore, only one out of 10 (9%) were confident that they would be able to
stop ransomware attacks. Even SMEs who have been hit by ransomware previously
are finding it difficult to pinpoint how they were infected, with a third of
respondents (30%) indicating they did not know how they were infected. Not
knowing how a ransomware infection started, can make removal of malware more
difficult, and also makes it hard to determine what the company’s cybersecurity
gaps are.

“Businesses of all sizes are increasingly at
risk for ransomware attacks,” said Jeff Hurmuses, Managing Director and Area
Vice President, APAC, Malwarebytes. “However, the stakes of a single attack for
a small business are far different from the stakes of a single attack for a
large enterprise. Osterman’s findings demonstrate that SMBs are
suffering in the wake of attacks, to the point where they must cease business
operations. To make matters worse, most of them lack the confidence in their
ability to stop an attack, despite significant investments in defensive
technologies. To be effective, the security community must thoroughly understand
the battles that these companies are facing, so we can better protect them.”

“Second Annual State of Ransomware Report” top
findings for Singapore include:

The impact of ransomware on SMBs can be
devastating. For roughly
one in six impacted organizations, a ransomware infection caused 25 or
more hours of downtime, with some organizations reporting that it caused
systems to be down for more than 100 hours. Further, among SMBs that
experienced a ransomware attack, 21% reported that they had to cease business
operations immediately, and 11% lost revenue.

Most organizations make addressing ransomware a high
priority, but still lack confidence in their ability to deal with
it. Of the Singapore SMEs surveyed,
73% place a high or very high priority on addressing the ransomware
problem. Despite these investments, nearly one-half of the organizations
surveyed expressed little to only moderate confidence in their ability to
stop a ransomware attack.

For many, the source of ransomware is unknown and
infections spread quickly. For
30% of organizations in Singapore that suffered a ransomware infection,
decision makers could not identify how the endpoint(s) became infected. Notably, more
than 20% of ransomware infections spread to other devices.

Most SMBs do not believe in paying ransomware demands. 62% of Singapore based respondents believe that
ransomware demands should never be paid. Most of the remaining
organizations believe that demands should only be paid if the encrypted
data is of value to the organization. Among organizations that chose not to
pay cybercriminals’ ransom demands, about one-third (33%) lost files as a
result.

Current investments in technology might not be
enough. About one-quarter of SMEs in
Singapore claim to have been running anti-ransomware technologies.
However, 35% of businesses in the country have experienced a ransomware
attack.

“It’s clear from these findings that there is
widespread awareness of the threat of ransomware among businesses, but many are
not yet confident in their ability to deal with it,” said Hurmuses. “Companies
of all sizes need to remain vigilant and continue to place a higher priority on
protecting themselves against ransomware.”

To view the full
global “Second Annual State of Ransomware” report for more detailed findings
and analysis, visit https://go.malwarebytes.com/rs/805-USG-300/images/Second%20Annual%20State%20of%20Ransomware%20Report%20-%20Singapore.pdf

About
Malwarebytes

Malwarebytes
is the next-gen cybersecurity company that millions worldwide trust.
Malwarebytes proactively protects people and businesses against dangerous
threats such as malware, ransomware, and exploits that escape detection by
traditional antivirus solutions. The company’s flagship product combines
advanced heuristic threat detection with signature-less technologies to detect
and stop a cyberattack before damage occurs. More than 10,000 businesses
worldwide use, trust, and recommend Malwarebytes. Founded in 2008, the company
is headquartered in California, with offices in Europe and Asia, and a global
team of threat researchers and security experts. For more information, please
visit us at http://www.malwarebytes.com/.

Malwarebytes
founder and CEO Marcin Kleczynski started the company to create the best
disinfection and protection solutions to combat the world’s most harmful
Internet threats. Marcin was recently named “CEO of the Year” in the Global
Excellence awards and has been named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Rising Stars of
Enterprise Technology list and the Silicon Valley Business Journal’s 40 Under
40 award, adding those to an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

###

See us on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/malwarebytes

Read our latest Malwarebytes Labs blog: https://blog.malwarebytes.com/

For the LATEST tech updates,
FOLLOW us on our Twitter
LIKE us on our FaceBook
SUBSCRIBE to us on our YouTube Channel!