Ransomware payments are falling; Actfore CEO offers possible reasons WHY

“Organizations have increasingly implemented comprehensive data backup solutions, so the business can rapidly recover their systems through a wipe and restore process.

Organizations are realizing that just because a ransom is paid doesn't mean the information is safe from exposure. In fact, there's been many instances where despite payment and a ‘promise', the information has still made its way to the Dark Web.

Many organizations are becoming more tech-driven when it comes to incident response services, enabling them to identify the breached data much faster. Digital forensics is not only becoming more advanced and precise, but data mining services and incident response are evolving to be more efficient and proactive. Technology is allowing organizations to better understand the contents of the stolen data before proceeding down the road of ransom payment.

A concern over ethical and legal ramifications of sending large payments to unknown and unidentified parties. For instance, if the threat actor is a foreign nation-state sponsored terrorist group, then it could be seen as illegal to be paying money to those adversaries. The playing field becomes more level when you have more data to make decisions about whether to pay or not.”