CXO Insight Middle East - June 2021

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In May, we’d seen another crippling ransomware attack against a major petroleum pipeline company in the US. The Colonial Pipeline attack resulted in major supply chain disruptions, leading to severe gasoline and diesel shortages in many states in the country. This was the largest attack on critical infrastructure in the history of the US, and the company had to pay a ransom of close to five million dollars in bitcoin to DarkSide, an Eastern European hacking group responsible for the attack. In the last 14 months, we have seen an alarming rise in ransomware attacks, and according to the research unit of Palo Alto Networks, the average ransom paid has more than doubled in 2020 to $312,493. This year, the average ransom payment has nearly tripled. Now, the question is should you ever pay if you are hit with a ransomware attack? The industry is divided on this, but the general consensus is that you can’t trust criminals; even if you pay the ransom, there is no guarantee that you’d get stolen data back.