Sophos has released the results of their latest survey, “The State of Ransomware in Manufacturing and Production 2023.” Of the many findings, the report highlights that in 68% of ransomware attacks against manufacturers, the attackers were able to encrypt the data. According to Sophos, this is the highest reported encryption rate for the industry over the past three years. In addition, 73% of survey respondents used backups to recover data, up from 58% the previous year, while recovery times increased. Only 55% of those surveyed were able to recover within a week, down from 67% in 2022.
In a recent quote, John Shier, field CTO for Sophos, said, “Using backups as a primary recovery mechanism is encouraging, since the use of backups promotes a faster recovery. While ransom payments cannot always be avoided, we know from our survey response data that paying a ransom doubles the costs of recovery. With 77% of manufacturing organizations reporting lost revenue after a ransomware attack, this added cost burden should be avoided, and priority placed on earlier detection and response.”