New Delhi, Sept 29 (KNN) According to a latest report by Cybersecurity Company, NordLocker India’s small businesses are at the highest risk of cyber attacks as the country is among the top countries in the list.

At the highest risk of ransomware attacks fall small businesses with an employee base of 500, reported Financial Express.

From January 2020 to July 2022, they accounted for around 54 per cent of total attacks.

Information Technology (IT) sector (at 23.40 per cent) and manufacturing (10.90 per cent) are the top sectors prone to cyber attacks.

The list is followed by consumer services (9.4 per cent), finance (9.4 per cent), and energy (6.3 per cent), respectively.

Explaining the report, Tomas Smalakys, NordLocker’s Chief Technology Officer said, “Ransomware is a type of cyberattack that forces a company’s operations to a halt by taking possession of its most crucial and sensitive files and demanding a ransom from the company to get the data back.”

“This type of attack is extremely effective. In the past few years, cases have grown exponentially, while cybersecurity awareness has failed to catch up,” added Tomas.

The study analysed numerous databases of ransomware incidents that affected over 5,000 companies worldwide.

The study tells that business size is another major indicator of how likely a business is to be targeted by a ransomware attack. 

Companies with an employee count between 201-500 are the victims of 22.60 per cent of attacks, and those between 1,001-5,000 employees are victims of 17 per cent of ransomware hack.  (KNN Bureau)