80% of ransomware-hit Indian organisations had to pay off attackers to recover data: Survey

New Delhi: About 80 per cent of ransomware-hit Indian organizations paid a ransom to recover their data or to stop the attack in the past one year, said Rubrik Zero Labs survey report.

Significantly, 52 per cent of Indian organizations paid a ransom due to data extortion threats while 44 per cent of Indian organizations reported that cyber attackers successfully affected their backup and recovery options, said the new research report.

The research report, titled “The State of Data Security in 2025: A Distributed Crisis,” also notes that 65 per cent of organizations in India store their sensitive data across 2-3 multiple environments (on-premises, Cloud, or SaaS) while 38 per cent respondents say that one of the biggest challenges they face in securing their data is securing sensitive data across multiple environments.

As many as 44 per cent of Indian organizations reported that cyber attackers successfully affected their backup and recovery options. The consequences of these attacks were that 29 per cent of respondents reported financial losses, 31 per cent noted reputational damage and loss of customer confidence, and 36 per cent experienced a forced leadership change following a cyber incident, said the report.

The survey was based on insights from over 1,600 IT and security leaders across 10 countries (half of whom were CIOs or CISOs) from the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Japan, Australia, Singapore and India. From India 125 IT respondents participated in the survey conducted by Wakefield Research.

“The persistence of ransomware attacks, coupled with the exploitation of hybrid cloud vulnerabilities, shows that threat actors are always one step ahead. Companies must take action and adopt an attacker’s mindset by identifying – and protecting – the most valuable data before it’s too late," said Joe Hladik, Head of Rubrik Zero Labs.

The research report states that globally, 90 per cent of the IT and security leaders reported cyberattacks in the past year. It also reveals the hazards that hybrid environments are creating, leading to a cloud security crisis that organizations are unprepared to address.

"The latest RZL report serves as a wake-up call for Indian IT leaders, this highlights the urgent need for data resilience and security in today’s complex hybrid environments—where data is increasingly spread across on-premises infrastructure, public clouds, and SaaS platforms,” said Ashish Gupta, Managing Director, India, & Head of Engineering, Rubrik.