Almost half of US businesses hit by ransomware, says study

The threat of ransomware is becoming widespread among corporations, with almost half of U.S. businesses suffering an attack from the nasty form of malware recently, according to a new survey.

Security firm Malwarebytes sponsored the study, which found in June that 41 percent of U.S. businesses had at least encountered between one to five ransomware attacks in the previous 12 months.

Another 6 percent saw six or more attacks.

The study surveyed corporations in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Germany to gauge how ransomware affected their operations.

The malware, which can infect a computer and take the data hostage, can be bad for business. Thirty-four percent of the victim corporations in the countries surveyed reported losing revenue because the ransomware had prevented access to important files.

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