Like peanut butter and chocolate, municipalities and ransomware continue to go together. In just the last year or so, high-profile ransomware attacks took place at the City of Oakland, California; City of Quincy, Illinois; Somerset County, New Jersey; Suffolk County, New York; and City of Wheat Ridge, Colorado. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Many municipal ransomware attacks go unreported.
How big of a problem is ransomware for municipalities? It’s big. And remember, it just takes one staff member to click on the wrong email to unleash a lot of destruction.
1. 58% of state and local governments experienced a ransomware attack in 2021.
Municipalities remain a popular ransomware target. Many cities and towns still think, “We’re below the radar screens of sophisticated cyberattackers.” Or, “Cyberattackers mostly go after businesses.” Instead, research shows that municipalities remain a key target for attackers.
2. Of state and local governments hit by ransomware, only 20% were able to stop the attack from succeeding.
According to a Sophos report, “This figure is considerably lower than the global average of 31%, suggesting that state and local government organizations are poorly equipped to identify and stop attacks before damage is done.” This means, on average, a cyberattacker has an 80% chance of succeeding in deploying ransomware at your municipality. Are you part of the 80%? Or the 20%?
3. Ransomware attacks on state and local governments last an average of 7.3 days.
On average, the duration of an attack can last for a week. During that time, and depending on your cybersecurity measures, your operations are largely on pause as you work with IT professionals to restore your data from a prior backup, rebuild your systems, and eliminate the immediate threat.
4. 21% of state and local governments take 1-6 months to recover from a ransomware attack.
If you are ill-equipped to handle a ransomware attack, whether from lack of data…
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