UK firms 'stockpiling Bitcoins' to pay hacker demands

33 per cent of medium-large UK businesses are saving digital currencies to rescue their data - despite recommendations not to

A high number of UK companies are stockpiling virtual currency to pay ransomware demands, despite recommendations not to pay.

33 per cent of UK businesses with more than 250 employees are ‘stockpiling Bitcoins to pay up' in the event of an attack, Citrix found in a survey. Bitcoin and other digital currencies are increasingly being chosen by cybercriminals as a form of payment due to their inherent anonymity.

Firms with 250 or more employees represent only 0.1 per cent of the UK economy, but make a large contribution to employment (10.3 million people) and turnover (more than £2 trillion).

36 per cent of organisations with 250-500 employees are storing Bitcoin, but the propensity peaked amongst those with 501-1,000 employees (57 per cent) and decreased amongst larger organisations (24 per cent of firms with 1,001-2,000 employees and 18 per cent of those with 2,000+). However, it was the latter group that were willing to pay the most to recover their data: 35 per cent of the largest firms would pay more than £50,000.

On average, companies have stockpiled around £46,000 in Bitcoin; a third have stored more than £50,000, and the largest hold as much as £136,000.

Companies are not prepared for cybercrime

The research showed that many firms do not have basic cybersecurity in place. For example, 55 per cent of the largest companies are failing to back up their data every day; and 7 per cent of companies with 250-500 employees have no contingency measures in case of a ransomware attack (although this is down significantly from 20 per cent last year).

A quarter of respondents to the Citrix poll said that the government is failing to provide businesses with guidance to avoid cyberattacks - although this is down from 32 per cent in 2016.