With few options, companies increasingly yield to ransomware demands

Faced with few options, companies are increasingly giving in to cybercriminals who hold their data hostage and demand payment for its return, while law enforcement officials struggle to catch the nearly invisible perpetrators.

The risks to organizations have become so severe that many simply pay their attackers to make them go away -- a strategy that may only embolden the crooks.

(Related reading: Cryptolocker: How to avoid getting infected and what to do if you are)

It's a case of asymmetric electronic warfare. Ransomware, which encrypts files until a victim pays to have them unlocked, can be devastating to an organization. Barring an up-to-date backup, little can be done aside from paying the attackers to provide the decryption keys.

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