The State of Ransomware
2025 Report
The average total cost of a ransomware attack has reached a staggering
$5.13 Million
This figure includes ransom paid, downtime, recovery costs, and long-term brand damage, marking a critical threat to businesses of all sizes.
A Rising Digital Tide
Ransom demands continue to escalate. The average payment has seen exponential growth over the past five years, reflecting the increasing sophistication and audacity of cybercriminal groups.
Who Is Being Targeted?
While no sector is immune, threat actors disproportionately target industries with critical infrastructure and sensitive data, where operational downtime is most costly.
How They Get In
Exploiting the human element and unpatched systems remain the top entry points. Phishing campaigns are the primary method for gaining initial access into corporate networks.
Anatomy of an Attack
A ransomware attack is not a single event, but a multi-stage process. Understanding this lifecycle is key to identifying and disrupting the attack chain before encryption occurs.
1. Initial Access
Phishing, exposed RDP, or software vulnerability.
2. Foothold & C2
Malware establishes persistence and "calls home".
3. Reconnaissance
Attacker maps network and locates critical data.
4. Data Exfiltration
Sensitive data is stolen before encryption.
5. DEPLOYMENT
Ransomware encrypts files across the network.
The Payment Dilemma
Paying the ransom offers no guarantees. A significant percentage of organizations who pay still cannot recover their stolen data, falling victim to a "double extortion" scheme where criminals fail to provide a working decryption key.
1 in 8
Companies that paid the ransom were unable to recover their data.
This highlights the unreliability of negotiating with criminals and the critical importance of having independent, secure backups as the primary recovery strategy.