What MSPs, VARs Should Know About Ransomware

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.