Sophos recently released its annual “State of Ransomware in India 2024” report today. The findings reveal that while the rate of ransomware attacks against Indian organisations decreased from 73% in the previous year to 64% this year, the impact on victims has intensified, with higher ransom demands and recovery costs.

The report, based on a survey of 500 IT decision-makers in India, found that for the first time, Indian organisations were more likely to recover data by paying the ransom (65%) than using backups (52%). The average ransom demand was $4.8 million, with 62% of demands exceeding $1 million, and the median ransom paid was $2 million.

According to the report, 44% of impacted computers on average were encrypted in attacks against Indian victims, and 34% of attacks included data theft in addition to encryption. Excluding ransom payments, the average cost to recover from an attack was $1.35 million. The report also found that 61% of victims were able to recover data within a week, up from 59% in 2022, and 96% reported the attack to authorities, with 70% receiving investigation assistance.

Sunil Sharma, Vice President, Sales, India and SAARC, Sophos, emphasised the importance of prevention as the most cost-effective ransomware strategy, along with comprehensive backup and recovery measures and continual review of security posture and incident response plans.

The report also highlighted global findings, including that 94% of organisations hit by ransomware said that cybercriminals attempted to compromise their backups during the attack, with 57% successful attempts.

Sophos recommends implementing endpoint protection, bolstering defences with round-the-clock threat detection and response, building and maintaining an incident response plan and making regular backups to defend against ransomware and other cyberattacks.

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