Hackers Increasingly Shun Encryption in Favour of Pure Data Theft and Extortion

Symantec and Carbon Black warn of a sharp increase in "encryptionless" extortion campaigns in 2025—attacks in which criminals steal data and threaten publication instead of encrypting systems. The report highlights ~1,500 such incidents (up from 28 in 2024), implicates groups like ShinyHunters and Scattered Spider, and identifies common vectors including supply-chain weaknesses, social engineering, and exploitation of zero-day vulnerabilities such as CVE-2025-61882; it recommends patching, supply-chain auditing, strong credential hygiene, and MFA.