October 13, 2023

A new study by Splunk has found that ransomware attacks are still a major threat to organizations, with 96% of respondents saying they had encountered an attack in the past year. 52% of those attacked claimed the impact on their business systems and operations was significant.

The study also found that 83% of organizations that were attacked paid the ransom, with 53% paying more than $100,000. Some 18% paid the ransom directly to the hackers, while 37% did so via cyber insurance and 28% went through a third party.

According to the study, organizations are increasingly turning to AI to help them improve their cybersecurity posture. Some 93% of respondents said they had extensively or moderately adopted integrated automation into their processes.

Furthermore, 86% believe generative AI would plug skills gaps and shortages in the security team, taking over labor-intensive and time-consuming functions, and freeing up security staff to work on more strategic tasks.

Organizations are also concerned about the potential for generative AI to be used by adversaries to launch new attacks. Some 39% of respondents said they were taking steps to train employees to better understand threats that might surface due to generative AI.

The sources for this piece include an article in ZDNET.