A survey of more than 1400 small-medium business (SMB) decision-makers has found that ransomware remains the most common cyber threat to their businesses, according to a report by IT managed service provider Ditto. In Australia and New Zealand, some 91% of managed services providers (MSPs) reported attacks against SMBs in the last two years – the highest rate globally.

The 2019 Global State of the Channel Ransomware Report found the number of ransomware attacks against SMBs is on the rise. Some 85% of MSPs reported attacks against SMBs over the last two years, compared to 79% of MSPs who reported the same in 2018. In the first half of 2019 alone, 56% of MSPs reported attacks against SMB clients.

And, according to the Ditto report, the cost of ransomware has skyrocketed. 64% of MSPs report experiencing a loss of business productivity for their SMB clients, while 45% report business-threatening downtime. The average cost of that downtime is US$141,000, a more than 200 percent increase over last year’s average downtime cost of US$46,800.

“Ransomware attacks most often succeed through very sophisticated phishing techniques – for example, when someone clicks on something they shouldn’t and the malware infiltrates their contact list – the attackers then use those credentials to exploit further,” said Daniel Johns, head of services at leading Australian ICT company, ASI Solutions.