To pay or not to pay: how victims deal with ransomware demands - by Gwenyth Morgan et al.

Analysis on the choices for organisations who face blackmail demands from cybercriminals. By Gwenyth Morgan, Bert Gordijn, Joss Moorkens and Renaat Verbruggen, and Dave Lewis.

When the Irish Health Service Executive (HSE) was hit with a Conti ransomware attack in May 2021, management was faced with a dilemma that many organisations would find familiar. Should they pay the ransom demanded for the return of their data or not? The Irish government consistently said that its policy was not to pay but, within days of the ransom demand, unnamed Oireachtas members were reported to favour negotiation with the hackers. To read the full article please see here.