Cybersecurity remains a critical challenge for businesses worldwide. Despite ongoing efforts and warnings from security experts and authorities, a significant number of organizations continue to pay the ransom when hit by a ransomware attack. Recent findings indicate that nearly half of all victims are still choosing to give in to attacker demands.
This persistent trend highlights the immense pressure companies face following a successful breach. The primary motivations behind paying the ransom often include the urgent need to restore critical business operations, the perceived high cost and complexity of data recovery without the decryption key, and concerns about sensitive data leaks being exploited or published by the attackers.
While paying the ransom might seem like the quickest path to regaining access to encrypted data, it is widely discouraged. Every payment fuels the ransomware economy, incentivizing criminals to launch more attacks and target more victims. Furthermore, there is no guarantee that paying will actually lead to successful data recovery or prevent the attackers from leaking the stolen information anyway.
The continued high rate of payment underscores the need for organizations to invest more heavily in proactive cybersecurity strategies. This includes implementing robust backup and recovery plans, conducting regular security training for employees, deploying advanced threat detection and prevention tools, and developing comprehensive incident response protocols. Strong defenses and the ability to recover data independently are the most effective ways to break the cycle of ransomware and reduce the likelihood of having to consider paying cybercriminals.
Source: https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/06/30/information_security_in_brief/
