Kaspersky tells ransomware victims not to pay up

If your organization ever gets infected by ransomware (and there are good chances it will) it is better not to pay up because you probably won’t get your data back, even if you do pay the ransom.

This is according to a new report by security firm Kaspersky Lab, which urges organizations to instead report the incident to the authorities. It bases its conclusions on a couple of research results -- more than a third (36 percent) of organizations pay the ransom, but around 20 percent still don’t get their files back.

Approximately 17 percent of organizations have been victims of ransomware before, and six percent have had their data held hostage against them.

"We urge all ransomware victims, whether they are large organizations or single individuals, not to pay the ransom demanded by criminals", says Andrei Mochola, head of Consumer Business at Kaspersky Lab.

"If you do, you will be supporting the cybercriminals’ businesses. And, as our study shows, there is no guarantee that paying the ransom will actually give you access to your encrypted data. The best way to protect yourself and your files from ransomware is with an effective security solution. In addition, Kaspersky Lab, together with other security vendors and law enforcement agencies, is constantly working on detecting the criminal servers that store decryption keys and retrieving the keys from them. From a consumer perspective, what’s really important is that ransomware is reported to law enforcement agencies to help fight this threat", adds Mochola.

Ransomware is one of the biggest malware threats organizations all over the world are facing. It usually spreads through fraudulent emails with malicious attachments, and encrypts all the data on a computer or a network.

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