Top Ransomware Attack Types in 2026 and How to Defend

Ransomware remains one of cybersecurity’s most persistent threats, extorting victims by holding their data hostage. A rapidly escalating cyber threat, ransomware consistently evolves in scope and sophistication.

Indeed, while its earliest forms date back to 1989, ransomware alone accounted for 44% of breaches in 2024-2025. This clear rise in prevalence demands urgent attention.

Interestingly, even cybercrime follows market logic: ransomware demands dropped in 2025 as more companies refused to pay. However, this means many attackers are using more aggressive techniques to pressure organizations and secure payments. Many groups now combine data theft, extortion, and operational disruption to maximize pressure and ensure payment — proof that capitalism influences the black market, too.

To navigate this evolving threat, understanding the diverse types of ransomware and their implications is crucial. Read on to explore the types of ransomware shaping today’s threat landscape, what they say about modern cyber risks, and practical steps to strengthen your organization.

What is ransomware?

Ransomware is a type of malware that locks you out of your system or denies access to your files until a ransom is paid. This malicious software infiltrates computer systems through various means, like:

• Phishing
• Malicious websites
• Downloads

Once ransomware gains access to your system, it prevents you from accessing your files or locks down your computer screen, demanding a ransom to restore access. Modern ransomware often demands payment in cryptocurrencies, with ransom amounts reaching millions of dollars depending on the target.

Unlike some other cyber threats, ransomware is about control and extortion.

What does a ransomware attack entail?

By the time you, the victim, sees the ransom message, it's already too late. Ransomware has already encrypted files before you can know it. The encryption process often occurs in the background, before the ransom note is displayed.

A ransomware attack typically follows a specific pattern — here's what happens from infection to ransom demand:

1. Arrival, contact, and search. The ransomware attack starts with the malware infiltrating the system through a vulnerability or user action.
2. Encrypt data, files, or systems. Once inside, it begins encrypting files or locking the screen.
3. Ransom. The victim is then presented with a ransom note demanding payment in exchange for the decryption key or restoration of access. The note often includes threats of data deletion or public release if the ransom isn't paid within a specified time frame.

Top types of ransomware attacks in 2026

Ransomware isn’t one threat — it’s many. Attackers have multiple tools and tactics to infiltrate organizations, hold their data hostage, and discreetly collect payments.

Below are the top types of ransomware you need to know and how they can disrupt your operations.

Crypto ransomware

Crypto ransomware, also called crypto-malware, is one of the most common and profitable types of attacks. It works by encrypting a victim’s files and demanding payment in cryptocurrency, typically Bitcoin, in exchange for a decryption key.

Cryptocurrencies provide attackers with a convenient, largely anonymous payment channel, making it difficult for law enforcement to trace or recover funds. Victims are instructed (typically through a ransom note) to purchase cryptocurrency and transfer it to the attacker’s wallet. In return, the attacker promises to provide a decryption tool to restore access to their data.

This “trust me, bro” model is part of the problem: attackers promise decryption keys, but few victims have reason to believe them. Because ransomware groups are inherently untrustworthy, many organizations refuse to pay and instead focus on recovery. In response, attackers have raised the stakes, shifting toward new methods that increase pressure and maximize leverage.

Locker ransomware

Lockerware is one example of attackers taking things a step further. While traditional attacks merely encrypt data, lockerware completely locks users out of their systems. In most cases, the locked screen displays a ransom demand and a countdown clock to add pressure and create a dramatic effect.

Lockerware doesn’t target files; it targets access. This means that organizations can’t reach their internal tools, applications, or recovery systems until the ransom is paid or the malware is removed. It’s less common today as attacks grow more sophisticated, but it’s still a powerful tool for attackers who want to create immediate panic and disruption.

Scareware

When locking users out isn’t enough, some attackers turn to fear itself.

Panic is a powerful motivator. Research shows that fear increases risk aversion and shortens decision-making horizons, leading people to make quick, emotionally charged (rather than logical) decisions.

Attackers exploit this tendency through scareware: malicious campaigns that mimic legitimate system alerts or security scans. These spoofed websites use alarming language, fake pop-ups, and/or device scan results to make users think their devices are infected or compromised.

The website is typically harmless, but it scares victims into quickly downloading their service or product to “fix” the issue. The download is the actual danger; attackers use it to access user devices and networks.

Like many social engineering techniques, scareware’s effectiveness is a matter of psychology, not code. It serves as a valuable reminder that the weakest link in security is often human emotion.

Leakware, double, and triple extortion ransomware

Leakware, also called extortionware, takes it a step further by threatening to publish stolen data unless victims pay the ransom. Attackers raid devices to uncover confidential files, trade secrets, and sensitive customer information they can leverage. The goal is to make people panic and pay to keep data out of the wrong hands or from being exposed publicly.

Beyond typical leakware, attacks have now evolved to double and triple extortion. Leaking data alone isn’t enough pressure, so attackers combine tactics to increase leverage.

In double extortion, attackers both encrypt data and exfiltrate it for later leaks. It’s a hybrid of crypto ransomware and leakware, where attackers tell the victim: “Pay to get your data back and to stop us from leaking it.” Attackers get double the pay: once for releasing the data and again for keeping it from being exposed publicly.

Triple extortion adds yet another layer of coercion. Beyond encryption and leaks, attackers use:

• DDoS attacks to stop business operations.
• Direct pressure on customers, partners, or employees.
•  Public harassment campaigns or regulator notifications.

The triple extortion turns the attack into a multi-vector coercion campaign: it’s less about technology, more about manipulation.

Learn more about this and other ransomware trends >

RaaS: Ransomware as a service

For many operators, the real money isn’t in writing malware. It’s in selling it.

Ransomware as a service (RaaS) is a distribution model similar to software as a service (SaaS). RaaS packages allow criminal developers to lease turnkey ransomware capabilities to affiliates, lowering the skill barrier and vastly increasing the pool of potential attackers.

The offerings are similar to legitimate SaaS models: subscription tiers, affiliate programs, built-in distribution, and integrated data-exfiltration tooling. Less skilled actors buy full campaigns — payload, hosting, negotiation playbook — while developers take a cut of the proceeds.

The result is an industrialized ransomware market: scalable, efficient, and far more destructive than lone actors could be on their own.

Supply-chain and data-only ransomware

Ransomware is nothing new, and most organizations invest heavily to protect their infrastructure. As a result, many attackers search for weakness not within the companies themselves, but in the third parties they trust. It’s the newest evolution in ransomware and likely where the future landscape is headed: supply chain attacks.

Instead of breaching one organization at a time, attackers compromise trusted vendors or managed service providers to reach hundreds of targets through a single point of failure. These attacks are devastating because they exploit the very trusted relationships that keep most modern businesses running.

Today’s campaigns are more selective. While they once chased notoriety by crippling hospitals or small municipalities, ransomware groups now focus on organizations that can absorb — and quietly pay — large ransoms. Manufacturing, logistics, and professional services are prime targets because downtime directly translates to financial loss. Attackers calculate those stakes carefully, choosing victims more likely to negotiate than resist.

The challenge of today’s ransomware threat: Beyond Encryption

The days of conventional data encryption have given way to new tactics to pressure victims into complying with their demands. Attackers now employ extortion, industrial sabotage, process disruption, and manipulation of safety systems to secure ransom payments.

• Recent campaigns have corrupted and forced industrial equipment (such as motors and turbines) into unsafe states, turning off fail-safes and creating hazardous conditions, as demonstrated by the infamous Colonial Pipeline attack in 2021.
• Others threaten to release sensitive information, putting organizations and individuals at risk.

Third parties add another layer of complexity to security. Organizations can no longer focus solely on securing their own environments — they must ensure their partners are secure as well. MSPs, contractors, and supply chain partners have the trust and access to controlled technology environments, making them the perfect Trojan Horse for attackers to infiltrate otherwise secure environments.

Organizations must move beyond traditional defenses amid evolving threats. Because data underpins every aspect of business, attackers no longer need to rely on encrypting data to cause harm. Their damage is more widespread—targeting operations, safety, and reputation—requiring companies to adopt new approaches to detect and contain these threats.

How organizations can avoid and defend against ransomware

Only a proactive stance can defend against the increasingly complex and damaging impacts of ransomware. Below are some of the most effective ways to protect your organization and reduce the risk of compromise.

1. Keep a digital backup

Properly stored backups turn a ransomware incident from a crisis into an inconvenience. When critical data can be restored quickly, attackers lose their leverage, and downtime Is minimized.

Maintain encrypted, regularly tested backups of your essential data. Keep backups offline: most attackers will try to locate and either delete or encrypt them, making restoration impossible. Routine validation ensures that when you need your data most, it’s actually recoverable.

2. Protect smart infrastructure

Modern ransomware targets and probes cyber-physical safety mechanisms to inflict real-world damage. Protection from these threats means thinking beyond information security. Defense strategies must bridge cyber, mechanical, and electrical domains:

• Continuous passive monitoring to detect protocol manipulation and abnormal device behavior.
• Resilient fail-safe designs that maintain safety even when control systems are compromised.
• Regular validation of automated safety logic to ensure protective responses trigger as intended.
• Strong configuration management for embedded firmware, preventing unauthorized changes to devices that underpin physical security.

Together, these measures harden smart infrastructure against both digital compromise and its real-world consequences.

3. Segment IT and OT

Connecting IT and OT makes intuitive sense: integration can improve oversight and operational efficiency. But attackers know this and exploit the flat trust model that connects digital and physical systems. A single weakness in the IT system provides direct access to OT systems that control physical operations. What started as a data issue quickly escalates to a physical hazard.

Ransomware like Ryuk and LockerGoga demonstrate the exponential damage these attacks can cause by encrypting power generation tools, manufacturing lines, and physical operations.

Strong network segmentation between IT and OT is critical to stop the spread of an attack and prevent dangerous situations. Research shows that segmentation, combined with identity access management and continuous monitoring of industrial control systems, is effective at limiting ransomware during initial response.

4. Secure third parties

Third-party infiltration is a standard ransomware delivery method. Attackers exploit trusted relationships, so vendor access is a prime target. To fight back, strengthen your third-party access governance by:

• Implementing least-privilege architectures.
• Strengthening vendor risk management.
• Monitoring authentication patterns.

Connectivity is often essential to improve efficiency, but it introduces risk. In these cases, organizations need to develop creative solutions — such as smart access scoping, time-bound permissions, and ephemeral credentials — to remain secure without compromising operational agility.

5. Create a zero trust architecture

Fighting ransomware is more than just implementing tools and small steps. It requires approaching organizational networks in an evolved way: a Zero Trust architecture. Implementing Zero Trust is one of the most fundamental and practical approaches to preventing and limiting ransomware attacks.

Most traditional security models operate under a “castle-and-moat” mindset: if users have the credentials to get inside, they can get anywhere. Zero Trust flips this model. It assumes no implicit trust — every user, device, and workload must continuously verify their identities and permissions, regardless of where they sit in the network. This approach both prevents attackers from entering and limits how far they can move within the infrastructure.

Zero Trust extends segmentation between IT and OT across the entire organization. It makes it harder for attackers to get in and move around, even if valid credentials are compromised. A single exposed password (as in the Colonial Pipeline attack) no longer threatens the entire network.

Every move your organization makes towards a Zero Trust environment is powerful. A few first steps include:

• Enforce MFA everywhere.
• Apply conditional access.
• Audit admin privileges.
• Require patched, monitored endpoints before granting access.
• Implement continuous verification.

While Zero Trust doesn’t make ransomware impossible, it does dramatically limit its impact. That’s why agencies like CISA, NIST, and ENISA say that Zero Trust adoption is critical for modern ransomware defense frameworks.

Protecting your organization from modern threats

Ransomware is no longer just about encrypted files. It’s about leverage: attackers are evolving to inspire fear and danger. Organizational defenses must move beyond prevention toward resilience.

Every improvement reduces the attacker's advantage, from segmenting IT and OT to securing third parties to implementing Zero Trust architecture. A robust defense requires one deliberate step at a time.

The future of ransomware defense isn’t just technical—it’s strategic and psychological. It requires collaboration across users, processes, and partners so that when the next attack comes, your organization is ready.