Education sector worst hit as ransomware attacks rise in India: Report 

Education sector worst hit as ransomware attacks rise in India: Report. To learn more, read the full story on The Hindu.

The rate ransomware attacks increased in India, with 73% of organisations surveyed reporting they were a victim of a ransomware attack, up from 57% the previous year.

In 77% of attacks, organisations reported adversaries succeeded in encrypting data with 44% paying the ransom to get their data back, a considerable drop from last years’ rate of 78%.

The education sector was found to be the worst hit, with 79% of higher education organizations surveyed and 80% of lower education organizations surveyed reporting that they were victims of ransomware attacks.

Overall, 46% of organisations surveyed that had their data encrypted paid the ransom. Organisations with larger revenues were found to be more likely to pay the ransom.

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The survey conducted by Sophos, a cybersecurity company, for its State of Ransomware 2023 report also showed when organisations paid a ransom to get their data decrypted, they ended up doubling their recovery cost - compared to organisations that used backups to get their data back.

Recovery times were also found to be longer for organisations that paid the ransom. 45% of organisations that used backups were able to recover their data within a week, compared to 39% of those that paid the ransom.