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A new report has revealed the impact of ransomware attacks on customer loyalty and behaviour, and the results are pretty grim.
While it’s not the biggest number revealed by the survey, the most alarming figure for businesses affected by ransomware attacks is that 75 per cent of customers would consider switching brands following such an incident.
The report — run by security firm Object First which polled 1,000 adults in the United States — found that three-quarters of people would either very likely or somewhat likely to switch brands. Less than 10 per cent said they were unlikely to do so, with the remainder stating their response would depend on whether the ransomware attack affected them.
The numbers get worse if a business suffers a second attack. Sixty-one per cent of those polled would very much change brands, with just shy of 30 per cent being somewhat likely.
However, customer age seems to matter a lot when it comes to brand loyalty in the aftermath of a ransomware attack. Just 34 per cent of Generation Z felt their trust in a company was affected by a breach, compared to 74 per cent of Baby Boomers.
The threat of such incidents is front of mind for most respondents, too. Eighty-one per cent of those polled said they were worried about the potential of a breach in the future and 40 per cent feel that companies are not doing enough to protect user data.
And of those polled, 23 per cent had already been affected by a data breach as a result of a ransomware attack.
Customer expectations that a company has some form of protection in place are high, however, 55 per cent of people feel that a full suite of protections — including identity access management, backup and recovery plans, and multi-factor authentication — should be in place. Nearly half of those polled practise good security habits themselves, including avoiding submitting any more personal data than is required or changing their passwords regularly.
“The data underscores the imperative need for businesses to bolster their ransomware prevention and data recovery strategies to uphold customer trust and retain loyalty in the face of increasing cyber threats,” Object First researchers said in a blog post.
“Consumers are more aware of cyber attack repercussions and want more from the vendors they entrust their data to.”
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
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