As reported in Computer Weekly, a survey conducted by Sapio Research has claimed that almost half (47%) of UK IT directors would “definitely” be willing to pay a ransom fee to hackers to avoid reporting a data breach and risking a fine under the new GDPR rules.

A further 30% of UK IT leaders said they would “possibly” consider paying the criminals’ ransom if it was lower than the possible penalty for a breach while only one in five (18%) respondents completely ruled out paying off their attackers.

According to CW, the study revealed that small businesses were least likely to consider paying a ransomware demand, with 54% of IT directors at UK companies with fewer than 250 employees ruling out paying their attackers, while just 11% of directors at companies with 500-750 employees said they would opt for this approach.

In another piece of research with UK companies, 35 per cent of respondents maintained that the hackers were more sophisticated than their IT teams, with 21 per cent claiming that they do not have the skills needed within the company to detect cyber breaches accurately in real time, and 27 per cent said poor visibility of entry points was a barrier to resilience.