34% of UK businesses have been forced to close down as a consequence of falling victim to ransomware attacks, according to research from cybersecurity provider, Atlas VPN.
Analysing a survey carried out by Cybereason, researchers found that as well as some businesses having to completely shut down, a vast majority of companies also experienced revenue loss, brand harm and unforeseen personnel cutbacks due to ransomware attacks.
Cybereason surveyed 1,263 cybersecurity professionals in April of 2021. The participants were from the United States (24%), United Kingdom (24%), Spain (12%), Germany(12%), France (12%), United Arab Emirates (8%), and Singapore (8%).
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Edward Garb, a cybersecurity researcher and writer at Atlas VPN said: “The findings are shocking and of huge concern. Most executives and employees are not aware of the fact that one attack could mean not only layoffs but a total demise of the organisation.”
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Employee and staff layoffs
Even though the majority of ransomware attacks do not result in business closure, a significant portion of companies are forced to eliminate some jobs. Interestingly, layoffs strongly depend on the industry.
For example, 50% of enterprises in the legal sector lay off employees after a ransomware attack. A close second is the retail industry, where 48% of ransomware victims had to let go of some workers.
Quite unexpectedly, respondents that work in the government sector never encountered a situation where a person or a group of employees was fired because of a ransomware attack.
To read the full article, head over to: https://atlasvpn.com/blog/31-of-us-companies-close-down-after-falling-victim-to-ransomware
