The newest annual Sophos examine of the real-world ransomware experiences of vitality, oil/fuel and utilities sector – a core component of the crucial infrastructure supporting companies – explores the complete sufferer journey, from assault price and root trigger to operational influence and enterprise outcomes.
This yr’s report sheds mild on new areas of examine for the sector, together with an exploration of ransom calls for vs. ransom funds and the way typically vitality, oil/fuel and utilities organizations obtain assist from legislation 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 vitality, oil/fuel and utilities organizations have been hit by ransomware in 2024, similar to the assault price reported in 2023.
98% of vitality, oil/fuel and utilities organizations hit by ransomware prior to now yr mentioned that the cybercriminals tried to compromise their backups throughout the assault. 4 in 5 (79%) of those backup compromise makes an attempt have been profitable, the very best price of profitable backup compromise throughout all sectors.
80% of ransomware assaults on vitality, oil/fuel and utilities organizations resulted in information encryption in 2024, in keeping with the encryption price reported by this sector in 2023 (79%) however increased than the 2024 cross-sector common of 70%.
The imply value in vitality, oil/fuel and utilities organizations to get better from a ransomware assault was $3.12M in 2024, much like the $3.17M reported in 2023.
Gadgets impacted in a ransomware assault
On common, 62% of computer systems in vitality, oil/fuel and utilities are impacted by a ransomware assault, significantly above the cross-sector common of 49%. In contrast to different sectors the place solely a small share of organizations have their full environments encrypted, roughly one in 5 vitality, oil/fuel and utilities organizations (17%) reported that 91% or extra of their units have been impacted.
The propensity to make use of backups for information restoration has decreased
61% of vitality, oil/fuel and utilities organizations paid the ransom to get encrypted information again, whereas solely 51% restored encrypted information utilizing backups – the bottom price of backup use reported throughout all sectors. That is the primary time that vitality, 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 signify 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 get better encrypted information (e.g., paying the ransom and utilizing backups). This time, 35% of vitality, oil/fuel and utilities organizations that had information encrypted reported utilizing a couple of methodology, increased than the 26% reported in 2023.
Crucial Infrastructure victims don’t typically pay the preliminary ransom sum demanded
86 vitality, oil/fuel and utilities respondents whose organizations paid the ransom shared the precise sum paid, revealing that the common (median) fee was $2.5M in 2024.
Rather less than half (48%) of respondents mentioned their fee matched the unique request. 26% paid lower than the unique demand, and 27% paid extra.
Trying on the information by trade, vitality, oil/fuel and utilities has the very best propensity to pay the unique ransom quantity demanded by attackers. Additionally it is 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 plenty of different areas.
Concerning the survey
The report relies on the findings of an unbiased, vendor-agnostic survey commissioned by Sophos of 5,000 IT/cybersecurity leaders throughout 14 nations within the Americas, EMEA, and Asia Pacific, together with 275 from the vitality, oil/fuel and utilities sector, a core component of the crucial infrastructure supporting companies across the globe. All respondents signify organizations with between 100 and 5,000 staff. The survey was carried out by analysis specialist Vanson Bourne between January and February 2024, and contributors have been requested to reply primarily based on their experiences over the earlier yr.