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What MSPs, VARs Should Know About Ransomware

 
 
By Gina Roos  |  Posted 2016-03-23
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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    1 - What MSPs, VARs Should Know About Ransomware
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    What MSPs, VARs Should Know About Ransomware

    Downtime translated into big concerns, such as data recovery costs, reduced customer satisfaction, missed deadlines and lost sales.
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    2 - Challenges Ahead
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    Challenges Ahead

    43% of IT consultants have had customers hit by ransomware, while 48% saw an increase in ransomware-related support inquiries. Additionally, 59% expect the number of attacks to increase in 2016.
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    3 - Who's At Risk?
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    Who's At Risk?

    89% of the businesses victimized by ransomware had 10 employees or more, while 60% had more than 100 employees. Three-fourths (75%) of attacks affected three or more people, and 47% impacted at least 20 people.
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    4 - Top Security Concerns
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    Top Security Concerns

    65% of IT consultants said hacking was their top security concern, followed by privacy breaches (64%), spyware (54%) and credit card breaches (53%). Only 24% ranked ransomware as a concern.
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    5 - Growing Alarm
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    Growing Alarm

    33% of IT consultants were very or extremely concerned about ransomware attacks on their customers in 2015; 37% said they were extremely or very concerned in 2016.
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    6 - MSP Fears
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    MSP Fears

    23% of MSPs said they are extremely concerned about ransomware, compared with only 10% of IT consultants and 0% of VARs. The percentages for providers who are very concerned include MSPs (20%), IT consultants (25%) and VARs (43%).
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    7 - Loss of Data Access
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    Loss of Data Access

    Ransomware attacks resulted in a loss of data access for three days, on average, with most businesses losing one day of access.
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    8 - Ransom Payments
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    Ransom Payments

    75% of IT consultants said their affected customers did not pay the ransom.
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    9 - Data Recovery Rates
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    Data Recovery Rates

    For those customers who paid, 71% of them got their files restored. On average, customers paid $250 per user for the ransom.
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    10 - Wipe and Restore
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    Wipe and Restore

    83% of IT consultants spent three days or less wiping and restoring the impacted computers, with 13% spending less than eight hours doing so. However, 7% spent more than one week on the task.
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    11 - Quick Restoration
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    Quick Restoration

    MSPs were the fastest at completing the wipe-and-restore process, taking 45 hours, compared with IT consultants, who spent 53 hours, and VARs, who spent 72 hours.
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    12 - Biggest Business Impacts
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    Biggest Business Impacts

    32% said significant data recovery costs were the top business impact of a ransomware attack, followed by traumatized employees (28%), reduced customer satisfaction (25%), missed business deadlines (25%) and lost sales (25%).
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    13 - Costs of Data Recovery
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    Costs of Data Recovery

    55% of IT experts billed their customers for time spent helping them recover their data, but 39% said they did not bill for the time.
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    14 - Ready for Action
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    Ready for Action

    94% of IT consultants who were extremely concerned about ransomware knew how to protect their customers, compared with 80% for everyone else.
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    15 - Biggest Losers
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    Biggest Losers

    Industries with the most to lose from ransomware include accounting/finance/banking (64%), information technology (46%), government (45%) and e-commerce (36%), according to IT consultants.
 

When companies fall victim to ransomware attacks, downtime seems to hurt them more than ransom costs, and the majority of managed service providers and VARs aren't recouping the time and money they spend on wiping and restoring their computer systems. These are a few key findings of the 2016 Crypto-Ransomware Report, conducted by Intermedia, a provider of cloud business applications. The survey of nearly 300 IT consultants, including MSPs and VARs, said that downtime translated into big concerns such as data recovery costs, reduced customer satisfaction, missed deadlines and lost sales. On average, companies didn't have access to their data for three days after a ransom attack. This indicates that few companies have business continuity solutions for ransomware outbreaks, according to Intermedia. Surprisingly, 45 percent of IT consultants did not bill their customers for the time spent helping them recover from ransomware attacks, even though many customers were willing to pay an incremental fee. Here are key takeaways from the study that show how MSPs and resellers can help protect their customers against ransomware.