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Use this asset to start customer conversations about:
- Ransomware readiness
- Identity risk, email-led attacks
- Recovery costs
- The value of integrated, AI-driven defense
What’s Happening Now
Ransomware is still disrupting businesses, but the attack path is changing.
This year’s Sophos research shows ransomware attackers are increasingly leaning on identity compromise, malicious email, and phishing to gain access. At the same time, recovery costs remain high and more than half of attacks still succeed in encrypting data.
Today’s Critical Challenge Is Your Big Opportunity
Your customers need help reducing ransomware risk across identity, email, endpoint, firewall, backup, and response workflows. You can help customers turn the report's findings into action and improve readiness before the next attack:
- Turn ransomware insights into practical defense improvements
- Strengthen identity security across users, devices, and access points
- Extend security teams with expert-led threat detection and response
- Build recovery plans and backup strategies that support business resilience
| 56% of ransomware attacks succeeded in encrypting data | $1.7M average recovery cost, excluding ransom payments | 79% of attacks started with an identity-based approach | 50% of incidents were caused by malicious email or phishing |
What Customers Are Up Against
- Identity risk is driving ransomware exposure. Two-thirds of ransomware victims said the ransomware incident was also their most significant identity attack, and 79% of attacks started with an identity-based approach.
- Email remains a high-impact entry point. Malicious email and phishing are now the top ransomware root causes, accounting for half of all incidents.
- MFA alone is not enough. 97% of incidents caused by compromised credentials occurred where MFA was enabled in some capacity.
- Recovery is still expensive. The average cost to recover from a ransomware attack is now $1,700,200, excluding any ransom paid.
- The human impact is real. 99% of organizations with encrypted data reported repercussions for IT and cybersecurity teams, and one in five organizations replaced their team leadership after the encryption attack.
Proof Points to Power Customer Conversations
These data points highlight where ransomware risk is rising and where customers may need stronger resilience with Sophos connected defenses.
| 48% of 100-250 employee orgs said a lack of people/capacity played a role in ransomware compromise | 34% of 100-250 employee orgs were able to stop attacks before encryption or extortion. | 61% said their firewall detected the ransomware attack before the payload was deployed |
The largest organizations surveyed (3,001–5,000 employees) were the most likely to stop attacks before encryption or extortion (46%) compared to just 34% for the smallest (100–250 employees).
Turn the Data into Action
| Identity protection Help customers close credential gaps and strengthen identity threat detection and response (ITDR). | Email security Address malicious email and phishing as leading ransomware root causes. |
| Endpoint protection Improve early detection, block exploit activity, and connect telemetry across control points. | Firewall defense Firewall detection before ransomware deployment was associated with a lower encryption rate than detection after deployment or no detection. |
| MDR and expert response Support customers that lack the people, skills, or capacity to monitor threats 24/7. | AI-era security operations Position integrated, AI-native defenses that help teams respond at machine speed. |
Why Your Business Wins with Sophos
- Create timely customer conversations around ransomware readiness, identity security, email risk, and recovery planning.
- Drive cross-sell and upsell opportunities across endpoint, firewall, email, MDR, and identity-focused security services.
- Become the trusted advisor customers rely on to simplify ransomware defense and prioritize next steps.
- Help close skills and capacity gaps with Sophos-managed detection, response, and AI-enabled security capabilities.
- Strengthen long-term customer relationships by helping customers move from siloed tools to connected defense.
What’s Next
Use The State of Ransomware 2026 Report to start a security resilience conversation with your customers. Help them assess where ransomware risk is entering their environment, where defenses are disconnected, and how Sophos can help them strengthen protection before, during, and after an attack.
