Manufacturing reports highest average ransomware payment across all sectors: Sophos

Sophos, a global leader in innovating and delivering cyber security as a service, today published a new sectoral survey report, “The State of Ransomware in Manufacturing and Production,” which found that the sector had the highest average ransom payment across all sectors—$2,036,189 versus $812,360, respectively.

In addition, 66% of manufacturing and production organizations surveyed reported an increase in the complexity of cyber attacks, and 61% reported an increase in the volume of cyber attacks when compared to the previous year’s survey. The increase in complexity and volume is also 7% and 4% higher than the cross-sector average, respectively.

“Manufacturing is an attractive sector to target for cybercriminals due to the privileged position it occupies in the supply chain. Outdated infrastructure and lack of visibility into the OT environment provides attackers with an easy way in and a launching pad for attacks inside a breached network. The convergence of IT and OT is increasing the attack surface and exacerbating an already complex threat environment,” said John Shier, senior security advisor, Sophos. “While having reliable backups is an important part of recovery, today’s ransomware threat requires a detailed response plan that includes human-led threat hunting capabilities. Complex attacks require comprehensive protection, which, for many organizations, will include the addition of managed detection and response (MDR) teams who are trained to look for and neutralize active attackers.”

While manufacturing and production had the highest average ransom payment, the percentage of organizations that actually paid the ransom was among the lowest across sectors (33% versus 46% for the cross-sector average).