The most recent annual Sophos examine of the real-world ransomware experiences of power, oil/fuel and utilities sector – a core component of the vital infrastructure supporting companies – explores the complete sufferer journey, from assault charge and root trigger to operational affect and enterprise outcomes.
This yr’s report sheds gentle on new areas of examine for the sector, together with an exploration of ransom calls for vs. ransom funds and the way typically power, oil/fuel and utilities organizations obtain assist from regulation enforcement our bodies to remediate the assault.
Obtain the report to get the complete findings.
Assault charges and restoration charges have remained regular
67% of power, oil/fuel and utilities organizations had been hit by ransomware in 2024, equivalent to the assault charge reported in 2023.
98% of power, oil/fuel and utilities organizations hit by ransomware previously yr stated that the cybercriminals tried to compromise their backups in the course of the assault. 4 in 5 (79%) of those backup compromise makes an attempt had been profitable, the very best charge of profitable backup compromise throughout all sectors.
80% of ransomware assaults on power, oil/fuel and utilities organizations resulted in knowledge encryption in 2024, consistent with the encryption charge reported by this sector in 2023 (79%) however increased than the 2024 cross-sector common of 70%.
The imply price in power, oil/fuel and utilities organizations to recuperate from a ransomware assault was $3.12M in 2024, just like the $3.17M reported in 2023.
Units impacted in a ransomware assault
On common, 62% of computer systems in power, oil/fuel and utilities are impacted by a ransomware assault, significantly above the cross-sector common of 49%. Not like different sectors the place solely a small share of organizations have their full environments encrypted, roughly one in 5 power, oil/fuel and utilities organizations (17%) reported that 91% or extra of their gadgets had been impacted.
The propensity to make use of backups for knowledge restoration has decreased
61% of power, oil/fuel and utilities organizations paid the ransom to get encrypted knowledge again, whereas solely 51% restored encrypted knowledge utilizing backups – the bottom charge of backup use reported throughout all sectors. That is the primary time that power, oil/fuel and utilities organizations have reported the next propensity to pay the ransom than use backups. Compared, globally, 56% paid the ransom, and 68% used backups.
This yr’s findings characterize a marked change from the earlier two years when the sector loved spectacular charges of backup use (70% in 2023 and 77% in 2022).
A notable change over the past yr is the rise within the propensity for victims to make use of a number of approaches to recuperate encrypted knowledge (e.g., paying the ransom and utilizing backups). This time, 35% of power, oil/fuel and utilities organizations that had knowledge encrypted reported utilizing a couple of methodology, increased than the 26% reported in 2023.
Important Infrastructure victims don’t typically pay the preliminary ransom sum demanded
86 power, oil/fuel and utilities respondents whose organizations paid the ransom shared the precise sum paid, revealing that the common (median) cost was $2.5M in 2024.
Rather less than half (48%) of respondents stated their cost matched the unique request. 26% paid lower than the unique demand, and 27% paid extra.
Trying on the knowledge by business, power, oil/fuel and utilities has the very best propensity to pay the unique ransom quantity demanded by attackers. It is usually the sector with the second lowest propensity to pay lower than the unique demand.
Obtain the complete report for extra insights into ransom funds and lots of different areas.
In regards to the survey
The report relies on the findings of an impartial, vendor-agnostic survey commissioned by Sophos of 5,000 IT/cybersecurity leaders throughout 14 international locations within the Americas, EMEA, and Asia Pacific, together with 275 from the power, oil/fuel and utilities sector, a core component of the vital infrastructure supporting companies across the globe. All respondents characterize organizations with between 100 and 5,000 staff. The survey was performed by analysis specialist Vanson Bourne between January and February 2024, and members had been requested to reply based mostly on their experiences over the earlier yr.
