Significant Rise in Ransomware Attacks Targeting Industrial Operations

Dragos' 2026 OT Cybersecurity Year in Review reports a 49% increase in ransomware groups targeting industrial organizations in 2025 (119 groups) and approximately 3,300 impacted industrial victims worldwide, with manufacturing and transportation most affected; attackers abused legitimate credentials via remote-access portals and virtualization services to cross IT/OT boundaries, maintained long dwell times (average 42 days), caused operational disruption (including ESXi hypervisor impacts), and included three newly identified groups (Sylvanite, Azurite, Pyroxene).