Ransomware attacks rose 20% in the first half of 2026

This Week in Hacks: 7M Driver's Licenses Stolen, Japanese Taxis Halted, US Military Phones Targeted

It's been a busy week in cybersecurity. And it's only going to get worse as agentic AI starts to do most of the heavy lifting for bad actors.

Ransomware attacks rose 20% in the first half of 2026

Hackers leaned further into ransomware in the second quarter of 2026, with a surge of new attacks led by two competing ransomware-as-a-service groups. A new report  from NordStellar finds that ransomware incidents were up 20% year over year in the first half of 2026, with 5,275 recorded attacks. The second quarter alone saw 2,581 incidents. The number of ransomware attacks saw a slight 4% decrease in the second quarter compared to the first thre…

Manufacturing and IT sectors bear brunt as ransomware attacks reach new baseline

NordStellar’s Q2 2026 analysis reveals ransomware attacks up 20% year-over-year, with rival groups Qilin and The Gentlemen competing for criminal dominance.

79% of ransomware attacks are from compromised identities

Sophos has released its seventh annual State of Ransomware report, a vendor-agnostic survey of IT and cybersecurity leaders across 17 countries identifying the impact of ransomware on businesses and how prepared organizations are to defend against them. This year’s report reveals that identity is the dominant initial access vector (IAV), with four in five (79%) of ransomware attacks starting with compromised identities. The prominence of identit…