No, it's not new or particularly exotic, but after years of attacks, ransomware continues to rank among the most destructive threats facing global organizations today.
Even with security teams pouring significant resources into prevention and detection efforts, attackers are still finding ways to bypass their defenses. Double extortion has become the default approach, with groups encrypting systems and stealing sensitive data for leverage.
Some actors are now skipping the encryption step entirely, focusing only on data theft and extortion to avoid detection and streamline their efforts.
Picus Security's Blue Report 2025 pulls back the curtain to show just how easily cybersecurity defenses are slipping.
Drawing on more than 160 million Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) results, this year's Blue Report saw overall prevention effectiveness fall from 69% in 2024 to 62% in 2025. The most alarming finding, however, was data exfiltration: prevention collapsed to just 3%, down from an already unacceptably low 9% last year. This leaves organizations exposed at exactly the stage ransomware groups exploit most.
The takeaway is clear: assumptions don't equal protection, and non-validated defenses will continue to fail when it matters most.
Parsing the results, it quickly becomes clear that ransomware readiness can't be assumed. It has to be proven. That means continuously validating your organization's defenses against both long-known ransomware families as well as the emerging strains now active in the wild.
Breach and Attack Simulation provides that proof, showing in real time whether protections stand or fail.
Why Known and Emerging Ransomware Both Matter
Unfortunately, with ransomware, familiarity all too often breeds false confidence. Security teams may believe they are protected against the big-name strains, but over time, if left alone, their defenses are steadily weakening as configurations drift and environments change.
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