News
34% of UK companies close down after falling victim to ransomware
July 2021 by Atlas VPN
Data presented by the Atlas VPN research team reveals that 34% of businesses in the UK are forced to close down as a consequence of falling victim to ransomware attacks.
The vast majority of firms have experienced substantial business impact due to ransomware attacks, including revenue loss and brand harm, unforeseen personnel cutbacks, and even the shutdown of the business altogether, according to key findings in this new report.
The insights stem from a survey carried out by Cybereason. They surveyed 1,263 cybersecurity professionals in April of 2021. The participants were from the United States (24%), United Kingdom (24%), Spain (12%), Germany(12%), France (12%), United Arab Emirates (8%), and Singapore (8%).
Shockingly, as many as 42% of organizations in the United Arab Emirates were forced to close down after a ransomware intrusion.
Following them is the United Kingdom, where 34% of surveyed professionals stated that their company halted their activities due to damages from the ransomware attack.
The United States is in third place, as 31% of companies attacked reported closure after the incident.
Businesses in France (22%), Germany (21%), and Singapore (21%) saw similar closure rates. Finally, only 5% of organizations in Spain had to close down because of the attack.
Edward Garb, a cybersecurity researcher and writer at Atlas VPN, shares his thoughts on the situation:
“The findings are shocking and of huge concern. Most executives and employees are not aware of the fact that one attack could mean not only layoffs but a total demise of the organization.”
Employee and staff layoffs
Even though the majority of ransomware attacks do not result in business closure, a significant portion of companies are forced to eliminate some jobs. Interestingly, layoffs strongly depend on the industry.
For example, 50% of enterprises in the legal sector lay off employees after a ransomware attack. A close second is the retail industry, where 48% of ransomware victims had to let go of some workers.
Quite unexpectedly, respondents that work in the government sector never encountered a situation where a person or a group of employees was fired because of a ransomware attack.
