Written by: Bavi Sadayappan, Zach Riddle, Ioana Teaca, Kimberly Goody, Genevieve Stark
Introduction
Since 2018, when many financially motivated threat actors began shifting their monetization strategy to post-compromise ransomware deployments, ransomware has become one of the most pervasive threats to organizations across almost every industry vertical and region. In recent years ransomware operations have evolved, creating a robust ecosystem that has lowered the barrier to entry via the commoditization and specialization of the supporting underground communities, which is exemplified by the proliferation of the ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) business model. While ransomware remains a dominant threat due to the volume of activity and the potential for serious operational disruptions, we have observed multiple indicators that suggest the overall profitability of ransomware operations is in decline. This trend is likely the result of multiple factors, including improved cybersecurity practices, increased ability of organizations to recover, and declining ransom payment amounts and rates. Further, numerous disruptions have impacted the ransomware ecosystem in recent years, from external forces like law enforcement operations to internal conflict between actors; both have led to the disappearance or significant debilitation of previously prolific RaaS groups like LockBit, ALPHV, Basta, and RansomHub. However, despite these shakeups, the well-established Qilin and Akira RaaS brands rose up to fill the vacuum, leading to a record high number of victims posted to data leak sites (DLS) in 2025 (Figure 1).
This report provides an overview of the ransomware landscape and common tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) directly observed in the 2025 ransomware incidents that Mandiant Consulting responded to. In this analysis, we excluded activity focused only on data theft extortion. Key insights include:
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In a third of incidents, the initial access vector was confirmed or suspected exploitation of vulnerabilities, most often in common VPNs and firewalls.
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77 percent of analyzed ransomware intrusions included suspected data theft, a notable uptick from 57 percent of incidents in 2024.
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In approximately 43% of ransomware intrusions we responded to in 2025, the threat actors were observed targeting virtualization infrastructure, an increase from 29% in 2024.
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REDBIKE was the most frequently deployed ransomware family, accounting for 30 percent of analyzed ransomware incidents.
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Several trends from prior years remained consistent, including a decreased use of certain intrusion tools like BEACON and MIMIKATZ and a plateau in the reliance of remote management tools.
Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) analysis of TTPs relies primarily on data from Mandiant engagements and therefore represents only a sample of global ransomware intrusion activity. These incidents involved the post-compromise deployment of ransomware following network intrusion activity, with the majority of incidents also involving data theft extortion. The impacted organizations were based across the Asia Pacific region, Europe, North America, and South America and within nearly every industry sector.
While we anticipate ransomware will remain one of the most impactful cyber threats in 2026, the reduction in profits may cause some threat actors to leverage other monetization methods and tactics, such as continuing targeting shifts, further increasing data theft extortion operations, the use of more aggressive extortion tactics, or opportunistically using access to victim environments for secondary monetization mechanisms.
Recommendations to assist in addressing the threat posed by ransomware are captured in our white paper, Ransomware Protection and Containment Strategies: Practical Guidance for Endpoint Protect
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