Don’t pay out to ransomware criminals, businesses warned

The Information Commissioner’s Office has moved to remind businesses of the dangers of paying ransom demands for stolen data.

The Information Commissioner’s Office has issued a warning to firms over the dangers of paying ransom demands (PA) (PA Wire)

Businesses have been warned not to pay ransom demands for data stolen in cyber attacks following a number of high-profile ransomware attacks on firms around the world.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has issued the warning in response to claims from cyber criminals that paying a ransom reduces the scale of enforcement action taken against a firm by the data protection watchdog – which the ICO said was “incorrect”.

Ransomware is a form of cyber attack where criminals break into an organisation’s system and encrypt files, making them inaccessible, and demand a ransom payment in order to release them.