A recent IBM study shows that ransomware increased 6,000 percent in 2016 over 2015. According to the report, ransomware was present in almost 40 percent of all spam email messages.

Ransomware is big business, since according to IBM Research, over 70 percent of business victims of ransomware pay the ransom for the key to get their data returned, despite the FBI’s recommendation not to pay.

A recent PhishMe study also found that over 91 percent of cyber-attacks start with spear phishing emails.

Lessons learned? Continue to impress upon employees how important data security is to your organization and specifically how to detect phishing emails and invest in a robust data back up system. These statistics indicate that ransomware will continue to victimize businesses.

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