Cause ransomware attacks worldwide 2023

A 2023 survey of cybersecurity professionals of organizations worldwide revealed that 36 percent of the organizations suffered ransomware attacks because of exploited vulnerabilities. Credential compromise was the second-most common cause of successful ransomware attacks, while malicious e-mail ranked third.

Root causes of ransomware attacks in organizations worldwide as of March 2023

Characteristic	Share of respondents
Exploited vulnerability	36%
Compromised credentials	29%
Malicious email	18%
Phishing	13%
Brute force attack	3%
Download	1%

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Release date

May 2023

More information

Region

Worldwide

Survey time period

January to March 2023

Number of respondents

3,000 respondents

Special properties

IT decision makers and cybersecurity leaders of 100-5,000 employee organizations

Supplementary notes

The original question was phrased by the source as follows: "Do you know the root cause of the ransomware attack your organization experienced in the last year? Selection of answer options. Base numbers in chart."

Organizations with 100-5,000 employees. 2023 data was conducted in 14 countries in the Americas, EMEA, and Asia Pacific.

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