CYBERSECURITY | August sees highest ransomware count in 2026 — Cyble
The Philippines recorded 10 claimed victims, tying with China for fifth place in Asia-Pacific.
August recorded the highest number of ransomware victims so far in 2026, with 1,034 organizations publicly named by ransomware groups worldwide, according to a report by Cyble Research and Intelligence Labs (CRIL).
The Ransomware Brief said 88 ransomware gangs were responsible for the publicly claimed victims in August, averaging 33 victims a day, or more than one every hour.
The Philippines recorded 10 claimed victims, tying with China for fifth place in Asia-Pacific. Half of the Philippine victims were attributed to Qilin, identified by CRIL as the world’s most active ransomware group.
August’s total was 25 percent higher than July’s 859 victims and 101 percent higher than June’s 536. CRIL said the increase followed a three-month decline from March to June, followed by a 60 percent rise in July.
The research group said the latest figures could represent a new baseline rather than a seasonal increase, with security planning based on first-half 2026 activity running about 41 percent below actual activity.
Manufacturing, services targeted
Manufacturing and professional services were the most targeted sectors in August, with 151 and 147 victims, respectively. They were followed by information technology and information technology-enabled services with 126 victims and health care with 98.
CRIL said the sectors are attractive targets because operational disruption can create pressure to pay, while client and other sensitive data can increase the impact of an attack.
Asia-Pacific accounted for 143 victims, or 13 percent of the global total, placing it behind the Americas with 603 victims and Europe with 270.
India, Thailand, Taiwan and Japan accounted for 68 victims in the region. Australia and New Zealand, which CRIL tracks separately, recorded 22 victims.
The United States accounted for 484 victims, or 48 percent of the global total. Italy was the second most targeted country with 50 victims.
Qilin claimed 145 victims globally, while The Gentlemen claimed 110. Together, the two groups accounted for about a quarter of publicly named victims in August.
Asia-Pacific differed from the global trend, however, with The Gentlemen claiming 20 victims in the region compared with Qilin’s 16.
CRIL also identified Krybit, with 13 victims, and orova, with 12, among the ransomware groups claiming the most victims in Asia-Pacific.
The report attributed the global increase to ransomware groups recruiting affiliates and exploiting internet-facing infrastructure. It also noted that some groups are relying on data theft and extortion without encrypting victims’ systems.
“The quieter first half of the year was never a sign that ransomware was fading. Gangs were regrouping, and August shows what they regrouped into,” said Daksh Nakra, senior manager of research and intelligence at Cyble.
“For Indian organisations, the lesson is to stop planning against the names in the headlines. The groups most active in this region often have little global profile, and the defences that hold against them are the fundamentals: knowing what is exposed to the internet, who can reach it, and whether you can recover without paying,” Nakra said.
CRIL recommended prioritizing patches for internet-facing systems, extending phishing-resistant multifactor authentication to third parties, segmenting networks to limit data theft, maintaining tested offline backups and monitoring exposure in leak and access markets.
Full disclosure: All news articles published on the TechSabado website are written by human journalists, unless otherwise specified. Final text editing is also performed by human editors, with artificial intelligence (AI) used only to assist with additional grammar and style guide corrections..
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