{"id":57099,"date":"2023-07-04T10:51:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-04T02:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/?p=57099"},"modified":"2023-07-04T10:51:03","modified_gmt":"2023-07-04T02:51:03","slug":"over-two-thirds-of-manufacturing-companies-hit-by-ransomware-had-their-data-encrypted-sophos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/2023\/07\/04\/over-two-thirds-of-manufacturing-companies-hit-by-ransomware-had-their-data-encrypted-sophos\/","title":{"rendered":"Over two-thirds of manufacturing companies hit by ransomware had their data encrypted – Sophos"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sophos<\/a>, a global player in innovating and delivering cybersecurity as a service, recently announced a new sectoral survey report, \u201cThe State of Ransomware in Manufacturing and Production<\/a> 2023,\u201d which found that in more than two-thirds (68%) of ransomware attacks against this sector, the adversaries successfully encrypted data. This is the highest reported encryption rate for the sector over the past three years and is in line with a broader cross-sector trend<\/a> of attackers more frequently succeeding in encrypting data.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, in contrast to other sectors, the percentage of manufacturing organizations that used backups to recover data has increased, with 73% of the manufacturing organizations surveyed using backups this year versus 58% in the previous year. Despite this increase, the sector still has one of the lowest data recovery rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUsing 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,\u201d said John Shier, field CTO, Sophos. \u201cWith 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, despite the growing use of backups, manufacturing and production reported longer recovery times this year. In 2022, 67% of manufacturing organizations recovered within a week, while 33% recovered in more than a week. This past year, only 55% of manufacturing organizations surveyed recovered within a week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLonger recovery times in manufacturing are a concerning development. As we’ve seen in Sophos’ Active Adversary reports<\/a>, based on incident response cases, the manufacturing sector is consistently at the top of organizations needing assistance recovering from attacks. This extended recovery is negatively impacting IT teams, where 69% report that addressing security incidents is consuming too much time and 66% are unable to work on other projects.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sophos provides a look at a large-scale ransomware attack against a manufacturing company in its newly released three-part \u201cThink You Know Ransomware?\u201d documentary series. In episode 2<\/a>, Sophos interviews the chief information security officer of Norsk Hydro, a major aluminum production company, to learn about the aftermath and investigation of the attack against the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sophos experts recommend the following best practices for organizations in manufacturing and across all other sectors:<\/p>\n\n\n\n