Only 26% of Surveyed Organizations Stopped Cybercriminals from Encrypting Their Data in a Ransomware Attack

This Is the Lowest Rate of Disruption in 3 Years   

Recovery Costs Are Four Times Higher for Those That Pay the Ransom

OXFORD, U.K. — Novembre 7, 2023 —

Sophos, a global leader in innovating and delivering cybersecurity as a service, today shared findings from its sector survey report, “The State of Ransomware in Retail 2023,” which found that only 26% of retail organizations this past year were able to disrupt a ransomware attack before their data was encrypted. This is a three-year low for the sector—a decline from 34% in 2021 and 28% in 2022—suggesting the sector is increasingly unable to halt ransomware attacks already in progress. 

"Retailers are losing ground in the battle against ransomware. Ransomware criminals have been encrypting increasingly greater percentages of their retail victims in the last 3 years, as evidenced by the steadily declining rate of retailers stopping cybercriminal attacks in progress. Retailers must up their defensive game by setting up security that detects and responds to intrusions earlier in the attack chain,” said Chester Wisniewski, director, global field CTO, Sophos.

In addition, the report found that, for those retail organizations that paid the ransom, their median recovery costs (not including the ransom payment) were four times the recovery costs of those that used backups to recover their data ($3,000,000 versus $750,000). 

“Forty-three percent of retail victims paid the ransom according to our survey respondents, yet the median recovery cost to victims who paid the ransom was four times the cost to those who used backups and other recovery methods. There are no shortcuts in these situations and rebuilding systems is almost always required. It's better to deprive the criminals of their spoils and build back better,” said Wisniewski. 

Additional key findings from the report include:

  • In line with a broader, cross-sector trend, the retail sector experienced its highest rate of encryption over the past three years, with 71% of those organizations targeted by ransomware stating that attackers successfully encrypted their data
  • The percentage of retail organizations attacked by ransomware declined from 77% last year to 69% this year
  • The percentage of retail organizations that recovered in less than a day decreased from 15% to 9% this year, while the percentage of retail organizations that took more than a month to recover increased from 17% to 21%

Sophos recommends the following best practices to help defend against ransomware and other cyberattacks:

  • Strengthen defensive shields with: 
    • Security tools that defend against the most common attack vectors, including endpoint protection with strong anti-ransomware and anti-exploit capabilities 
    • Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) to thwart the abuse of compromised credentials 
    • Adaptive technologies that respond automatically to attacks, disrupting adversaries and buying defenders time to respond 
    • 24/7 threat detection, investigation and response, whether delivered in-house or by a specialized Managed Detection and Response (MDR) provider 
  • Optimize attack preparation, including regularly backing up, practicing recovering data from backups and maintaining an up-to-date incident response plan 
  • Maintain security hygiene, including timely patching and regularly reviewing security tool configurations

To learn more about the State of Ransomware in Retail 2023, download the full report from Sophos.com.

The State of Ransomware 2023 survey polled 3,000 IT/cybersecurity leaders in organizations with between 100 and 5,000 employees, including 355 from the retail sector, across 14 countries in the Americas, EMEA and Asia Pacific.

Informazioni su Sophos

Sophos è un leader globale e innovatore di soluzioni di sicurezza avanzate per sconfiggere gli attacchi informatici. L'azienda ha acquisito Secureworks il Febbraio 2025, unendo due pionieri che hanno ridefinito l'industria della cybersicurezza con i loro servizi, tecnologie e prodotti innovativi e ottimizzati grazie all'intelligenza artificiale nativa. Sophos è ora il più grande fornitore di servizi di Managed Detection and Response (MDR), a supporto di oltre 28.000 organizzazioni. Oltre a MDR e ad altri servizi, il portfoglio completo di Sophos comprende soluzioni leader di mercato per endpoint, network, email e cloud security che interagiscono attraverso la piattaforma Sophos Central e innalzano le barriere di sicurezza. Secureworks fornisce l'innovativa Taegis XDR/MDR, anch’essa leader di mercato, l’ identity threat detection and response (ITDR), le capacità SIEM di nuova generazione, il managed risk e un ampio set di Advisory Services. Sophos vende tutte queste soluzioni attraverso partner rivenditori, Managed Service Provider (MSP) e Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) in tutto il mondo, difendendo oltre 600.000 organizzazioni da phishing, ransomware, furto di dati, altri crimini informatici quotidiani e state-sponsored. Le soluzioni sono alimentate dall'intelligence sulle minacce acquisita storicamente e in tempo reale di Sophos X-Ops e dal Counter Threat Unit (CTU) appena aggiunto. Sophos ha sede a Oxford, Regno Unito. Ulteriori informazioni sono disponibili su www.sophos.it.