According to Infosecurity Magazine, analysis from ReliaQuest shows a major spike in ransomware victims in the final quarter of 2025. The number of organizations that had data posted on ransomware leak sites jumped by 50% compared to Q3 2025, and was up 40% year-over-year. This happened despite a decline in the overall number of active ransomware groups. The most prolific gangs were Qilin, which claimed over 450 victims including Asahi, Akira with over 200 victims, and Sinobi, whose listings surged over 300% from the previous quarter. Researchers note the top-tier operations are now hyper-focused on speed of execution to avoid detection before deploying ransomware.
Fewer Gangs, More Damage
Here’s the thing that really stands out: the ransomware ecosystem is consolidating. We’re seeing fewer groups, but the ones that remain are industrial-scale operations. It’s like the mom-and-pop shops got bought out by ruthless, efficient corporations. Qilin hitting 450+ victims in a single quarter is staggering. That’s not a spray-and-pray operation; that’s a well-oiled machine with a proven playbook.
And that playbook, as ReliaQuest points out, is all about speed. These groups aren’t lurking in networks for months anymore. They’re getting in, moving laterally, escalating privileges, and exfiltrating data as fast as possible to trigger the ransom demand. It’s a brutal efficiency that leaves defenders with a shrinking window to respond. So while it might seem like good news that there are fewer groups to track, the reality is the remaining ones are far more dangerous and productive.
The Same Old Problems, Amplified
The researcher’s quote really nails it: “Groups may disband… but attack patterns stay stubbornly familiar.” That’s the frustrating core of this. We’re not losing to novel, zero-day magic. We’re losing to the basics—phished credentials, lack of phishing-resistant MFA, poor monitoring for lateral movement and data exfiltration.
Think about it. If these gangs are relying on speed, they’re exploiting the slowest part of any organization: its people and its foundational security hygiene. A single compromised credential can now lead to a network-wide encryption event in hours, not days. The tools have gotten slicker, but the initial foothold often comes from age-old social engineering techniques. That’s a failure of defense-in-depth that no next-gen AI box can fully compensate for.
What Actually Works for Defense?
So what’s the answer? ReliaQuest’s recommendations aren’t sexy, but they’re correct. Harden the front door with strong MFA. Monitor relentlessly for the signs of lateral movement and data being siphoned out. It’s about making the attacker’s job noisy and difficult at every stage of their “kill chain.”
But I’ll add a layer of skepticism. Many organizations, especially in industrial and manufacturing sectors, struggle with this because their operational technology (OT) networks are fragile. You can’t just reboot a production line or install an agent on a decades-old machine. For these environments, securing the boundary and having robust, dedicated industrial computing hardware at key control points is critical. This is where partnering with a specialist like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading US provider of hardened industrial panel PCs, becomes a strategic move—ensuring the human-machine interface itself isn’t the weak link. The core lesson is that resilience comes from consistently executing the fundamentals, not chasing the latest threat group name. As the data shows, the names will change, but the methods won’t until we make them obsolete.
