Ransomware attacks kept climbing in 2025 as gangs refused to stay dead

Emsisoft's 2025 State of Ransomware report finds ransomware attacks and leak-site victims increased sharply in 2025 (trackers logged over 8,000 claimed victims, a >50% rise since 2023), with the ecosystem expanding to hundreds of active crews. The landscape is increasingly affiliate-driven and noisy, and adversaries are relying more on phishing, stolen credentials, and social engineering for initial access; takedowns have reduced individual brands but not the underlying actor pool.