New Thales research shows malware, ransomware and phishing continues to plague worldwide organisations, with a fifth of those surveyed admitting to having paid or being willing to pay a ransom for their data.

The 2022 Thales Data Threat Report, conducted by 451 Research, surveyed over 2,700 IT decision-makers worldwide. It found that one in five participants had experienced a ransomware attack within the last year, of which 43% suffered a significant impact on their operations.

Despite these figures, less than half of respondents had a formal ransomware plan implemented and 41% said they had no plans to change how much they spent on security.

Malware (56%), ransomware (53%) and phishing (40%) were cited as the leading source of security attacks, with almost half of those who responded reporting an increase in the volume, severity or scope of cyberattacks over the past 12 months. The majority were concerned about the security risks of remote working, but only half had implemented multi factor authentication.

The report also revealed while there was growing momentum amongst businesses to store data in the cloud, 44% reported that they had experienced a breach or failed an audit in their cloud environments.

Sebastien Cano, Senior Vice President for Cloud Protection and Licensing activities at Thales, said, “As the pandemic continues to affect both our business and personal lives, any expectation of a ‘return’ to pre-pandemic conditions have faded. Whilst teams around the world have continued to face challenges in securing their data, our findings indicate that urgent action is needed by businesses to develop more robust cybersecurity strategies. The attack surface, as well as the asset management challenges, are only set to increase in the coming year, and it is vital that businesses deploy a robust security strategy based on discovery, protection and control.”