Let this sink in: the costs of ransomware attacks nearly tripled from $12,762 to $36,295 last year. And that’s just the ransomware payment.

The true cost of recovering from ransomware is much greater, however. Ransomware is defined as vicious malware that locks users out of their devices or blocks access to files until a sum of money or ransom is paid. Ransomware attacks cause downtime, data loss, possible intellectual property theft, and in certain industries an attack is considered a data breach.