Ransomware encrypts or steals data to disrupt operations and extort victims, making backups, access controls, and incident response essential.
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Background for this topic.
Ransomware is malware used to deny access to systems or data, usually by encrypting files and demanding payment for decryption. Many operations also steal sensitive information and threaten to publish it, so an attack can create both an availability crisis and a privacy or disclosure risk. Initial access may involve phishing, stolen credentials, exposed remote services, or exploitation of unpatched vulnerabilities; attackers may then move through the network before deploying the payload.
Defenses should combine vulnerability management, phishing-resistant authentication where practical, endpoint and network monitoring, and backups that are isolated from routine administrator access and regularly tested for recovery. Organizations should also limit privileges and segment critical systems to reduce the blast radius. An incident requires rapid containment, preservation of forensic evidence, restoration from known-good backups, and assessment of notification, legal, and regulatory obligations. Threat intelligence can help identify relevant criminal infrastructure or tactics, but it does not replace sound access control, patching, detection, and recovery practices.
A major U.S. payment gateway and solutions provider says a ransomware attack has knocked key systems offline, triggering a widespread outage affecting multiple services. The incident began on Friday and quickly escalated into a nationwide disruption across BridgePay's platform. [...]
The Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) in the U.S. has issued a warning about CVE-2026-24423, an unauthenticated remote code execution (RCE) flaw in SmarterMail that is used in ransomware attacks. [...]
Ransomware operators are hosting and delivering malicious payloads at scale by abusing virtual machines (VMs) provisioned by ISPsystem, a legitimate virtual infrastructure management provider. [...]
Since its launch in 2023, DragonForce has pushed a cartel model, emphasizing cooperation and coordination among ransomware gangs.
A third of the "flipped" CVEs affected network edge devices, leading one researcher to conclude, "Ransomware operators are building playbooks around your perimeter."
Revenue From Supply-Chain Attacks by Clop Group Sharply Fell, Report InvestigatorsOnce lucrative steal-and-leak campaigns pioneered by Russian ransomware group Clop look set to go the way of the dinosaurs. While an estimated 25% of victims paid a ransom in the inaugural campaign five years ago, the number of victims that paid fell to zero by 2023, report ransomware responders.
CISA confirmed on Wednesday that ransomware gangs have begun exploiting a high-severity VMware ESXi sandbox escape vulnerability that was previously used in zero-day attacks. [...]
ShadowSyndicate cluster expands with new SSH fingerprints connecting servers to other ransomware ops
Gang walks away with nothing, victims are left with irreparable hypervisors Cybersecurity experts usually advise victims against paying ransomware crooks, but that advice goes double for those who have been targeted by the Nitrogen group. There's no way to get your data back from them!…
GreyNoise's Glenn Thorpe counts the cost of missed opportunities On 59 occasions throughout 2025, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) silently tweaked vulnerability notices to reflect their use by ransomware crooks. Experts say that's a problem.…
A new ransomware-as-a-service operation dubbed “Vect” features custom malware
Class Action Stems From 2023 Ransomware Attack Affecting More Than 500,000Capital Health, which operates hospitals and other facilities in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, agreed to pay $4.5 million to settle consolidated class action litigation involving a 2023 LockBit ransomware and data theft attack affecting more than a 500,000 patients and employees.