More Than 50 Percent Of US Businesses Victims Of Cyberattacks In 2017

A little more than 50 percent of U.S. businesses have experienced a cyberattack during the last year, with 72 percent spending more than $50,000 to deal with the aftermath.

That’s according to a new survey of business executives conducted by the Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company (HSB), a cyber insurance company and unit of Munich Re. In a press release highlighting the results, the firm said that more than $50,000 went into investigating the cyberattacks, restoring or replacing damaged software and hardware and handling pushback as a result of the cyber extortions. 

“In addition to the rising number of cyberattacks and related costs, businesses are increasingly anxious about protecting their data,” said Timothy Zeilman, vice president for HSB, a leading provider of cyber insurance, in the press release. “Data is what drives a business, and the loss or corruption of information can be devastating.”

According to the survey, 38 percent of the businesses that were victims spent more than $50,000 to respond to the cyber extortion, while 10 percent spent between $100,000 and $200,000. Seven percent spent more than $250,000, the survey found.

What’s more, seven in ten business executives expressed concern that data would be destroyed due to ransomware, such as a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, while 62 percent expressed concerns about the damage a cybersecurity incident would have on their equipment.

Among the types of attacks, 53 percent cited malware, while 51 percent said viruses were the most common. Of the survey respondents, 35 percent said they were the victim of a DDoS attack, while 29 percent cited ransomware, in which cybercriminals hold a company’s data hostage and won’t release the information until a sum of money is paid, typically via a cryptocurrency. Twenty-five percent of business executives said their companies fell victim to cyber extortion, while 13 percent pointed to social engineering as the culprit behind a cybersecurity incident this year.