According to a new analysis from cybersecurity firm Sophos, ransomware attacks are hitting the energy and oil and gas sectors harder, costing utilities more in recovery time and money as victims appear to be more inclined to pay ransom demands.
Ransomware Attacks: A Growing Threat
The report examines ransomware’s impact on critical infrastructure firms and is based on more than 200 responses from a larger survey of 5,000 cybersecurity and IT leaders conducted in January and February. Sophos reported that the global ransomware attack rate appears to be decreasing. Still, researchers discovered that recovery times for energy, oil and natural gas, and utilities have been gradually growing since at least 2022.
This slowness could represent the increased complexity and severity of attacks, needing more recovery labor. According to the paper, this also implies a rising lack of recovery planning.
Vulnerabilities in the Energy Sector
According to the report, more than half of energy, oil and gas, and utility ransomware victims required more than a month to recover, up from 19% in 2022.
The Biden administration has spent recent months warning about Chinese-backed infiltrations into sensitive civilian and military critical infrastructure. Security officials have stated that the “Volt Typhoon” hackers may attempt to impair essential infra
[…]
Content was cut in order to protect the source.Please visit the source for the rest of the article.