Paying off the perpetrators of ransomware attacks may, in some cases, be the most appropriate exit for financial institutions whose data is compromised by hackers, said regulators speaking on a panel at the Central Banking Summer Meetings 2024 in London.

Ransomware has become endemic in recent years with cyber hackers – often highly organised and sometimes supported by state actors, such as North Korea – seizing control of confidential data, encrypting it, locking out bona fide users and