MSPs put aside dedicated funds for ransomware payments
According to a new report 45 percent of MSPs admit to having a dedicated pool of money set aside for ransomware payments. This is despite increasing pressure from insurers and global governments to avoid paying ransoms to stop fueling criminal enterprises and encourage proactive resilience.
The findings, from cyber risk specialist CyberSmart, also show that 36 percent opt to protect themselves with cyber insurance instead. Worryingly though, 11 percent of MSPs say they have no dedicated budget for ransomware payments or cyber insurance, in many cases leaving them without a contingency plan.
Despite many budgeting for ransomware-related incidents, MSP leaders name AI as the top cause of concern for their organization (44 percent), ahead of ransomware/malware (40 percent). AI didn’t rank among respondents' top concerns in the 2024 report, emphasising its remarkable rise to prominence over the past 12 months.
AI is also one of the threats most MSPs are least well-equipped to deal with, due to the lack of easy-to-use tools to counter AI-powered attacks, and this gap leaves SMEs especially vulnerable. The scale and speed of AI-powered threats, as well as the lack of skilled and dedicated professionals to deal with them, can be challenging for time and resource-strapped teams. This means that clients may rely more heavily on MSPs for support in this area. Already, the report finds that 84 percent of respondents note that their customers now expect them to manage either their cybersecurity infrastructure or their cybersecurity and IT estate combined.
“With customers relying more on MSPs for cybersecurity, it is essential that MSPs are cyber secure and cyber confident themselves, which means tackling the evolving threat landscape head-on,” says Jamie Akhtar, CEO and co-founder of CyberSmart. “Organizations shouldn’t rely on ransomware payments; rather, they should partner with organizations that can help proactively secure them.”
The full report is available from the CyberSmart site.
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