Semperis, a provider of AI-powered identity security, has published results of a global ransomware study of nearly 1,500 organizations in a variety of industries that aims to understand their experience with ransomware over the last 12 months. According to a press announcement, the study showed that hackers are relentless and ransomware is still a global epidemic. Global organizations across North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, and the Asia Pacific region participated in the survey on their experience with ransomware.

Seventy-seven of the responding healthcare organizations reported being targeted by ransomware in the last 12 months. Fifty-three percent of attacks on healthcare organizations worldwide were successful. Seventeen percent of these organizations managed to resume operations within a day, while 52 percent reported being up and running within a week after the attack, and 31 percent within a month.

The report indicated that even for those who paid ransom, their losses—ranging from $500,000 to $1,000,000 annually for 50 percent and over $1,000,000 for 8 percent of study participants who paid—were only the tip of the iceberg. On average, 15 percent of victims did not receive usable decryption keys even after paying ransom. An additional 3 percent found that attackers had published or illegally used their stolen data. Ransomware victims faced various collateral damages. For many industries, these disruptions were devastating. Attacks on healthcare organizations have led to patient deaths.

One of the key takeaways from the study was that outdated or legacy systems were identified as a top threat to business resilience by organizations in Canada and Germany, as well as in the Education, Energy, Government, Healthcare, and Manufacturing/Utilities sectors. Another key takeaway was that regulatory compliance was cited as a top cybersecurity challenge by organizations in the UK and France, as well as the Finance and Healthcare sectors.

In 40 percent of attacks, threat actors threatened to physically harm executives at organizations that declined to pay a ransom demand, Semperis reported. “US-based companies experienced physical threats 46 percent of the time, while 44 percent of German firms experienced similar forms of intimidation.”