Quarter of firms would pay out $1m in ransom to tackle technology terrors

HEY, IT TURNS OUT that an average business will kick out $1m in ransom payments to put a stop to the hacking of its servers and services.

This is based on research by the Cloud Security Alliance and a networking security company called Skyhigh Networks, which has some sort of interest in this kind of thing.

It is the latter organisation that brings the details to us. Skyhigh Networks warned that the cloud has brought problems and pains to the industry. These problems have led to questions about how many firms would pay ransom demands, which is around a quarter of them. Roughly 15 percent of these would pay up to $1m to get back to the security surface.

"It's shocking that so many companies are willing to pay even a penny in ransom, and would trust hackers not to follow through with an attack,"  said Nigel Hawthorn, chief European spokesperson for Skyhigh Networks.

"The idea that some would pay more than $1m is downright staggering. There are no guarantees at any price, and there is no way back once the payment is made.

"Examples of companies refusing to pay up are few and far between. As such, hackers are increasingly confident that they can hold businesses over a barrel, that they can execute crippling cyber attacks and that most businesses would rather pay up than put up. There will be several high-profile examples of ransomware in 2016, and countless unreported incidents on top of that."

The Cloud Security Alliance said that concerns about shifting IT to the cloud vary, citing a number of reasons for rejecting such a move. These include a lack of trust, a lack of faith in the security capabilities of the provider, concerns about encryption and worries about the cost.

Ah. Look. They are just like people. µ

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