A recent study conducted by Fortinet revealed that although 78% of organizations felt prepared for ransomware attacks, 50% still fell victim to them. The report is based on a global survey of 569 cybersecurity leaders from 31 locations worldwide, including the United States, United Kingdom, France, India, and Japan, among others. The respondents were from various industries such as manufacturing, technology, transportation, and healthcare.
The study found that a best-of-breed, point-product approach to security made organizations more vulnerable to ransomware attacks.
The report also identified the top challenges to stopping a ransomware attack, which were mostly people and process-related. The survey found that many organizations lacked clarity on how to secure against the threat, and a lack of user awareness and training was a major contributing factor.
Despite the high percentage of organizations detecting ransomware attacks early, almost three-quarters of respondents still made some form of ransom payment. Manufacturing organizations were found to receive higher ransoms and were more likely to pay the fee, with one-quarter of attacks among them receiving a ransom of $1M or higher.
The study revealed a growing disconnect between ransomware preparedness and prevention. Organizations that had consolidated to a smaller number of platforms were the least likely to be victims, while those using point products were the most vulnerable.
The report found that organizations using point products were the most likely to fall victim to an attack in the last year, while those who had consolidated to a smaller number of platforms were the least likely to be a victim. Further, almost all respondents (99%) viewed integrated solutions or a platform as essential to preventing ransomware attacks. These findings underscore the importance of leveraging a unified platform approach to defend against ransomware.
Despite economic uncertainty, nearly all organizations (91%) expect increased security budgets in the next year, focusing on advanced technology powered by AI and ML to enable faster threat detection and central monitoring tools to speed response. The top priorities for respondents were IoT Security, SASE, Cloud Workload Protection, NGFW, EDR, ZTNA, and Security Email Gateway.