According to cybersecurity researchers Cybereason, ransomware attacks that take place on weekends or during holidays often cause more damage to businesses than weekdays.
Surveying more than 1,200 cybersecurity professionals for the report “Organizations at Risk 2022: Ransomware Attackers Don’t Take a Holiday,” the company found that most respondents claimed it over the weekend. Ransomware (opens in a new tab) attacks lead to higher costs and greater revenue loss.
In fact, more than a third of respondents who experienced such an incident over the weekend or holiday said they lost more money, up almost a fifth (19%) from last year. The tourism and transport sectors, as well as the education sector, appear to be the most affected.
HG isuges
The reason is pretty clear: fewer staff means slower response times, and slower response times mean threat actors have more time to wreak havoc.
Nearly half (44%) of respondents said their staff is off by up to 70% on weekends and holidays. One in five (21%) operate a core team, as about one in ten of their entire team is registered. Furthermore, only 7% of respondents said that between 80-100% of their cybersecurity team works during these times.
The main challenge for businesses – even large ones with more than 2,000 employees – is putting together their incident response teams. Compared to weekday attacks, a third (34%) said it took longer than usual, while 36% said it took longer to stop them, and ultimately rehibilitate. 37% said that assessing the scope of the attack also took too long.
Cybereason concluded that ransomware continues to be a major threat to businesses, accounting for nearly half (49%) of all incidents the SOC team had to address.
