Ransomware in 2026
Still the biggest internet threat to users and continues to increase every year with clicking links to fake websites the main source of infection.
Recent reports are showing a preference for targeting larger businesses and organisations rather than individual users, probably because they are easier to manage and owners place a much higher value on their data so the rewards are much greater. Also the cost of downtime and effort to recover from backup can be more than just paying up for a quick fix.
The current trend is to not just encrypt ones data, but to download it and threaten to publish the information for anyone to view and attack any people whose details are found.
A major NZ Northland heath provider had their client details downloaded in 2026.
A worrying development is that non programmers have been using Chat GP to develop code for this and other malware purposes. While any use of Chat GP for illegal use is prohibited, and mostly blocked, there are ways around this.
A growing trend is for some Hacker groups to request many much smaller payments in the belief that this is cheap for the company to pay the ransom. However, they have no ability to recover and restore the data.
It has been estimated that victims of ransomware paid over 1 Billion US dollars in 2016 to recover their data and in future it's expected to be much greater. Are you prepared?
Checkout our page about it and how to avoid becoming a victim and if the worst happens to recover without paying up!