The reality of ransomware in 2025: What you need to know

In 2025, we’re witnessing a shift in how ransomware operates, who it targets, and the consequences of falling victim. It’s no longer just about stolen data—it’s about eroded trust, crippled operations, and long-term brand damage. This blog explores the evolving ransomware threat landscape for 2025.

A look back at 2024

2024 was one of the most prolific years for ransomware activity to date. According to data from Sophos 59% of organisations reported being hit by ransomware attacks, with 70% of those incidents resulting in encrypted data. This marks a notable shift in attacker success rates and demonstrates that many organisations are still not adequately prepared to respond to this form of cyber attack. Ransom demands increased by an average of fivefold over the previous year, signalling the growing confidence and aggression of threat actors.

One of the most concerning statistics was that 32% of ransomware incidents stemmed from unpatched vulnerabilities. This illustrates a continuing failure in cyber hygiene, as many organisations still struggle to manage patching across complex digital estates.

Ransomware in 2025: what’s changed?

New gangs, new tricks

While many of the top ransomware groups from 2024 remain highly active, 2025 has seen the emergence of several new threat actors that are reshaping the landscape. Groups like Meow, KillSec, DragonForce, and Cicada3301 have entered the fray with novel tactics and an aggressive approach to disruption. These gangs are more decentralised, harder to trace, and often blend financially motivated attacks with ideological agendas. Some operate under the guise of hacktivism, targeting governments and corporations not just for ransom, but to make political statements.

These newer groups also bring innovation. They’re adopting multi-vector entry methods, including the use of zero-day exploits, cloud misconfiguration exploitation, and social engineering powered by AI. Their extortion models often go beyond encryption and data leakage, incorporating reputational threats, legal risks, and even coordinated disinformation campaigns. With the ransomware ecosystem becoming increasingly commoditised, it's easier than ever for less skilled actors to launch devastating attacks using off-the-shelf malware kits and automated delivery tools.

The most active ransomware gangs in 2024 included RansomHub, LockBit 3.0, Play, Akira, and Hunters International, with each group leveraging advanced extortion techniques like double and triple extortion. Their operations were bolstered by the use of affiliates and Ransomware-as-a-Service models, enabling rapid proliferation.

Operational technology under fire

The targeting of Operational Technology (OT) environments by ransomware actors is expected to increase in 2025. OT systems are responsible for controlling physical processes in industries like manufacturing, energy, utilities, and healthcare. These systems are often legacy-based, lack robust security controls, and cannot be easily patched or taken offline for maintenance—making them prime targets.

Ransomware operators have recognised that by disrupting production lines, life-critical medical devices, or national infrastructure, they can put immense pressure on victims to pay up quickly. In many cases, even short outages result in millions in losses or potential risk to peoples safety. This trend has seen a dramatic rise in attacks on manufacturing and healthcare sectors, now the top two targeted industries globally.

Increasing hacktivist ransomware

In 2025, ransomware has firmly crossed into the geopolitical sphere. Nation-state-aligned groups, particularly those linked to Russia and Iran, have increasingly weaponised ransomware as a tool for disruption, misinformation, and destabilisation.

These so-called “hacktivist” groups often claim responsibility for attacks under pseudonymous collectives. Their targets range from government agencies and defence contractors to media outlets and educational institutions.

What makes these threats particularly dangerous is that they blend traditional cyber crime tactics with state-level capabilities. They may exploit zero-days, use misinformation to amplify the impact of an attack, or coordinate multiple attacks in tandem. Cyber resilience planning needs to factor in the potential for politically motivated ransomware, and threat intelligence gathering.

AI-powered threats

Artificial Intelligence is transforming ransomware. In 2025, we’re seeing AI integrated at every stage of the attack lifecycle—from reconnaissance and payload generation to social engineering and lateral movement. Threat actors are using AI to craft hyper-personalised phishing emails, mimic executive writing styles, and even generate realistic deepfake audio and video messages to deceive employees.

The rise of AI means organisations must move beyond signature-based detection and invest in behavioural analysis, anomaly detection, and AI-driven defences of their own to stay one step ahead.

Data under attack

In 2025, ransomware isn't just about locking files or stealing data—it’s about tampering with it. This tactic, involves threat actors corrupting, altering, or manipulating sensitive information before demanding a ransom. In some cases, attackers have threatened to subtly change financial records, patient data, or intellectual property, sowing doubt in the organisation’s systems.

This creates a new level of urgency. It’s no longer enough to restore from backups—organisations must now verify the trustworthiness of restored data. For industries that rely on data accuracy—such as finance, healthcare, and legal—this is especially dangerous.

Threat actors are no longer simply looking to extort money—they’re aiming to cause disruption, erode trust, and destabilise critical services.

Resilience is key

Security strategies must now account for early detection, rapid response, recovery, and continuity. The integration of advanced email filtering, behavioural analytics, threat intelligence, and real-time monitoring is essential. At the same time, organisations must double down on basic cyber hygiene—patching systems, reviewing access controls, and educating users remain powerful defences.

The most successful organisations in 2025 will be those who move beyond reactive security postures. They’ll be the ones who treat cyber security as a business enabler—prioritising it in board discussions, budgeting for it, and building partnerships with experts who can help them adapt to what’s next. Because when it comes to ransomware, staying still is the same as falling behind.