Beautiful Virgin Islands

Wednesday, Oct 08, 2025

Ransomware shame: More than half of business owners conceal cyber-breach

Ransomware shame: More than half of business owners conceal cyber-breach

The ransomware scourge may be even worse than widely believed as most business executives hide cyberattacks, a new survey says.

One-third (32%) of enterprises experienced a six-figure breach last year and well over half (61%) of business owners admitted to concealing a breach, according to the findings from a global survey of over 1,400 IT decision-makers at large organizations by cybersecurity firm Arctic Wolf.

"Most incidents do not get made public. After all, not every ransomware incident spreads to, nor takes down, an entire system or company infrastructure," Ian McShane, field chief technology officer at Arctic Wolf, told FOX Business.

"Unsurprising when you think of the negative press and brand damage, let alone potential for fines or other penalties depending on the industry," McShane said.

Other results of the survey include:

--78% of C-suite executives claim that they would be willing to pay a ransom.

--56% would be willing to pay over $100,000 to resume operations.

--74% of executives with hybrid work environments believe their in-house IT and security teams lack the capability to defend against ransomware.

--60% of executives believe their employees could not identify a cyberattack.

Those results reflect the constant drumbeat of reports of successful ransomware attacks that leave executives feeling vulnerable, according to McShane.

Hacker attacking internet


The survey comes in the wake of an announcement from the Department of the Treasury that sets out a series of actions to disrupt criminal networks and virtual currency exchanges that facilitate criminal transactions.

"Ransomware and cyber-attacks are victimizing businesses large and small across America and are a direct threat to our economy. We will continue to crack down on malicious actors," said Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen in a statement.

But executives have little faith in government efforts to disrupt ransomware, the survey shows.

"Despite recent interventions into cybersecurity issues, executives lack faith in the government's ability to protect them from cyber threats," Artic Wolf said, adding that the majority of organizations (60%) believe that spending on new security tools and services is the most effective way of stopping attacks.

And executives have no faith in diplomacy either, with only 15% of U.S. executives believing that diplomacy effectively stops future cyberattacks from foreign countries, though a larger number (31%) believe retaliatory cyberattacks against foreign nations would be effective.

China (41%) and Russia (41%) are seen equally as the source of the most dangerous threats targeting their businesses.

And in separate research from cybersecurity firm Veritas Technologies, which surveyed more than 2,000 global IT leaders, respondents stated that their employers had experienced an average of 2.57 ransomware attacks that had led to downtime in the last 12 months and 14% admit to five, or more, ransomware attacks causing downtime in the last year.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×