When an organization pays money to cybercriminals in order to remove ransomware, it not only loses financially but the brand image of its security measures and protocol is also tainted in the eyes of the public and industry. Consequently, it also becomes a target for other cybercriminals to launch their own set of cyberattacks. Thus, when an organization is faced with a ransomware attack, it has to deal with a plethora of challenges.
Downtime Reparations
Downtime is the time in which a computer system is unavailable for use. A ransomware renders the computer unavailable to work for a long period of time. If a computer is unavailable to use then law agencies cannot catch criminals, retailers cannot sell goods and hospitals cannot deal with patients due to lack of data.
Thus, downtimes cause huge reparations as not only major operations are stopped but also revenues are lost. San Francisco was hit upon by a ransomware attack in November 2016 which caused them to lose on subway fares for almost three days. The cybercriminals attacked the transit’s system’s ticketing. Similarly, in Atlanta, citizens were unable to pay their utility bills due to a ransomware attack.
Moreover, the officials that are associated with the recovery and restoration of the system as well as remove ransomware need to delay their regular job duties and spend their valuable time to deal with the attack. Sometimes, if the impact of a ransomware removal attack is too much then security researchers and consultants need to be hired in order to deal with the attack.
Reputational Damage
A ransomware attack also taints a company’s reputation as it becomes a news headline on several articles, blogs, newspapers and TV channels. Even if a company saves its systems immediately in the event of a ransomware attack, its image is already tarnished as the public perception becomes negative.
According to Mario Duarte who is a security vice president in Snowflake Computing, people are extremely conscious to provide their data to a company. The protection of the data by the company signifies its seriousness to its clients.
