corporate data, businesses usually pay up, said
Kaveh Waddell in TheAtlantic.com. A survey
of 600 U.S. business executives reveals that
nearly half said their company had been attacked
at some point with ransomware. More
strikingly: Some 70 percent of firms that had
been attacked paid their attackers to unlock
hijacked data. Nearly half of the companies
that paid ransoms coughed up more than
$20,000 to get their files back, and 20 percent
paid hackers more than $40,000. Individual
computer users targeted with ransomware
are more likely to decline to pay. Businesses,
however, stand to lose much more. “Compared
with the prospect of losing hundreds of
thousands of dollars’ worth of data, a $20,000
payment seems pretty worthwhile.”