Ransomware Attack Cost Calculator

 Ransomware has become one of the most disruptive and costly forms of cyber attack facing organisations today. Beyond the initial ransom demand, victims are often hit with downtime, recovery expenses, regulatory exposure, reputational harm, and—where attackers have exfiltrated data—the risk of double extortion. These costs quickly add up and can easily surpass the ransom itself.

This calculator is designed to help you understand what a ransomware attack could mean financially for your organisation. It combines recognised industry research with company-specific inputs such as your sector, the size of your data environment, the likelihood of paying a ransom, and your ability to recover systems. For operational technology and critical national infrastructure sectors, the model expands to include production downtime, equipment damage, and safety or environmental contingencies.

The result is not a prediction or a quotation, but a structured way to visualise the potential scale of impact. It highlights the key drivers—such as downtime, recovery costs, and the probability of paying—that most influence the final figure. By experimenting with different inputs, you can see how decisions and preparedness levels alter your exposure.

For full transparency, the underlying calculation and references to the research sources we have drawn on are provided below the calculator. This allows you to trace every assumption back to independent analyst studies and industry reports.

How the ransomware calculation works

This calculator estimates the likely financial impact of a ransomware incident by combining both direct costs (such as ransom payments, incident response, recovery, and fines) and indirect costs (like downtime, lost business, reputational damage, and—in OT environments—safety or environmental consequences).

The calculation starts with a base cost for the records affected (per-record remediation, notification, and credit monitoring). It then layers on ransomware-specific elements:

• Expected ransom payment – calculated as the demand amount multiplied by the probability of paying. This reflects the fact that many organisations now refuse to pay, but when they do, the cost is substantial.

• Incident response & recovery – based on global survey averages, often exceeding £1M, even when a ransom is paid.

• Exfiltration & double extortion – if data is stolen as well as encrypted, extra costs for leak site takedowns, PR, and regulatory exposure are included.

• Business interruption – modelled as either daily IT downtime or, for OT/CNI sectors, hourly production losses plus contingencies for equipment damage and safety/environmental impacts.

• Legal and regulatory costs – covering fines, litigation, and crisis communication.

• Risk modifiers – supply-chain compromise, shadow IT/AI exposure, and security maturity are included as uplifts or reductions.

The output is an indicative total exposure, not a prediction of any one attack. It helps you see which factors drive costs in your environment, and where improvements in resilience or maturity can reduce the financial risk.

References

This ransomware model draws on current analyst and incident-response research, including:

• Coveware Ransomware Reports (2024–2025): Median and average ransom payments, payment rates, and recovery statistics.

• Sophos State of Ransomware 2025: Average recovery costs (~$1.53M, down from $2.73M in 2024), and prevalence of double extortion.

• Chainalysis Crypto Crime Report 2025: Ransomware payment volumes, showing a significant drop in overall payments as more victims refuse to pay.

• Veeam Ransomware Trends 2025: Data recovery realities, highlighting that many organisations still restore less than half their data.

• Emsisoft annual reports: Real-world ransomware impacts in healthcare, education, and public sector.

• IBM Cost of a Data Breach 2025 and X-Force 2025: Broader breach cost factors (supply-chain, shadow IT, maturity reductions) used as modifiers.

All USD values have been converted to GBP at an exchange rate of ~£0.739 per $1 (September 2025).