The statistics refer to Sophos' 'State of Ransomware Report 2022', which surveyed 5,600 organizations worldwide about their experiences with ransomware attacks in 2021.

Fact 1 - 55% of companies affected by ransomware

Over half of the companies surveyed from the "Manufacturing & Production" sector stated that they had been affected by a ransomware attack in 2021. In 2021, it was 50% of the companies surveyed. However, this puts the industry sector well below the cross-industry average of 66%.

Fact 2 - 34% of ransomware victims pay a ransom

Around 34% of the manufacturing and production companies surveyed paid a ransom to free their encrypted data in 2021, compared to just 19% in 2020. On average across all sectors, 46% paid a ransom in 2021. The sharp increase in this area is due to the fact that many companies succumb to the fallacy that payment is the fastest way to ensure the recovery of data and thus business operations. However, despite payment, often only part of the data or nothing at all is decrypted.

Fact 3 - 58% use backups to restore encrypted data

Just over half of manufacturing and production companies use securely stored backup data to restore business operations after a ransomware attack. This is a significant drop from the average percentage of 73% that use backups for recovery - a potential indication of a weakness in the IT security strategy of manufacturing and production companies.

Fact 4 - The average recovery cost was around 1.23 million dollars

The impact of a ransomware attack can be immense: The average cost of recovering from a ransomware attack in 2021 for the Manufacturing & Production sector was around 1.23 million dollars. The cross-industry average cost was around 1.4 million dollars.

Fact 5 - Cyber insurance is becoming more important - and more complicated

Many companies rely on cyber insurance to recover from a ransomware attack: In Germany, 80% (83% globally) of companies surveyed had cyber insurance to cover them in the event of a ransomware attack. Ninety-four percent of those who have cyber insurance stated that their experience of taking out such insurance has changed in the last twelve months: This perception is expressed primarily through higher cyber security requirements, more complex or expensive policies and fewer companies offering cover.