New Delhi, Jul 11 (IANS): About 96 per cent of Indian small-and-medium businesses (SMBs) might consider paying cybercriminals in the event of ransomware extortion, a new report said on Thursday.

According to cybersecurity company ESET, about 88 per cent of Indian SMBs experienced breach attempts or incidents in the past 12 months.

"Our report reveals that although SMBs are confident in their security measures and IT expertise, the majority still faced cybersecurity incidents over the past year," said Parvinder Walia, President of Asia Pacific & Japan at ESET.

The report, which surveyed over 1,400 IT professionals, found that ransomware, web-based attacks, and phishing emails emerged as the top concerns of Indian SMBs.

India and New Zealand experienced the highest number of security breaches or incidents, despite expressing the highest levels of confidence in their security systems.

Moreover, the report mentioned that 63 per cent anticipated a rise in cybersecurity spending over the next 12 months, with 48 per cent of these firms expecting to do so by more than 80 per cent.

SMBs in India are also planning significant cybersecurity enhancements over the next 12 months. About 38 per cent aim to deploy Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR), Extended Detection and Response (XDR), or Managed Detection and Response (MDR) solutions. Additionally, 33 per cent plan to incorporate cloud-based sandboxing, 36 per cent will implement full-disk encryption, and 40 per cent will focus on vulnerability and patch management, the report said.