Did ransomware attacks really decline? Here are your business' 4 best defenses

ZDNET reviews Q1–Q2 2026 reporting from NCC Group and Check Point and concludes that ransomware remains an active and evolving threat: although aggregate quarterly trends can appear to decline, large campaigns (e.g., Cl0P's mass exploitation) skew statistics, and new actors (Qilin, The Gentlemen, Dragonforce, KryBi) plus RaaS and emerging AI-assisted operations suggest continued risk; the article summarizes victim counts, trend analysis, and recommends defenses including VPN hardening, firewall monitoring, timely patching, and multi‑factor authentication.