It never crossed my mind to report it: Examining willingness to report among entrepreneurs after ransomware victimisation

• In Event: Cybercrime Offenders & Victims (part 1)

Abstract

Although ransomware attacks are considered one of the biggest online threats today, the willingness to report among victims is low. Insight into the prevalence of victimisation is further complicated by the fact that attacks are reported to various agencies, such as the police, banks, insurance companies and cybersecurity firms. While research has been conducted on reporting of traditional crimes, these studies are lacking for many specific forms of cybercrime, including ransomware attacks. There is therefore a need to understand the willingness to report ransomware victimisation and factors that contribute to it. The current study uses a vignette experiment among Dutch freelancers (n=1.769) and SMEs (n=732), to understand the relationship between willingness to report and various factors, such as company characteristics, attack characteristics and motivations for reporting. The findings show that the willingness to report is high among both freelancers and SMEs in the vignette experiment. The presentation will address factors and motivations that play a role in the decision to report, and will give practical implications and recommendations.

Authors

• Tijmen Fuchs, The Hague University of Applied Sciences

• Sifra Matthijsse, The Hague University of Applied Sciences

• Susanne van 't Hoff-de Goede, The Hague University of Applied Sciences

• Rutger Leukfeldt, NSCR