Channel

Four Ransomware Trends to Watch In Canada

Datto’s Global State of the Channel Ransomware Report provides valuable information on how ransomware is impacting the channel on a global scale. We took our research a step further by diving deeper into our findings and creating reports for the targeted regions our managed service providers (MSPs) partners and the small businesses they serve are located in.

Author: Datto’s Urvish Badiani
Author: Datto's Urvish Badiani

We surveyed over 250 MSPs in Canada to obtain insights into ransomware trends in that region. Below are four statistics that every MSP in Canada should be aware of.

  1. In Canada, 83% of MSPs report ransomware attacks against SMB customers from Q2 2016 - Q2 2018, which is the 2nd highest region globally.
  2. Canada has the highest average cost of ransom and the highest cost of downtime globally. MSPs report the average requested ransom from for SMBs is $8,764 CAD, with the cost of downtime averaging $65,724 CAD.
  3. A new strain of ransomware in Canada, called Ryuk is causing Chaos, already netting over $3.7 million in Bitcoin since April 2018 according to EndGadget.
  4. 24% of MSPs in Canada report ransomware infections in cloud-based applications

All operations systems are being affected by ransomware, with the majority of attacks happening on Windows systems. However, MSPs also report attacks on Apple OS have increased 8% from 2017-2018.

Today, hackers are finding a variety of ways to infiltrate systems with ransomware attacks, and MSPs predict there will be even more avenues in the future. Our report states that:

  • 60% of MSPs predict ransomware will target social media accounts
  • 59% of MSPs predict ransomware will target IoT devices
  • 37% of MSPs predict ransomware will target people based on personal attributes

While there is no single solution to prevent ransomware, MSPs globally and in Canada ranked business continuity and disaster recovery solutions as the most cost-effective way to retrieve data after a ransomware attack. Our survey results revealed that 87% of MSPs stated that their clients with BCDR fully recovered from ransomware attacks within 24 hours, or less, after an attack.

Dive into the details of our Canadian State of the Channel Ransomware report today. If you’d like to take a wider look at ransomware trends facing the channel, view our global report here.


Author Urvish Badiani is sales director, Canada at Datto Inc. Read more Datto blogs here.