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Check Point Research reported on Rorschach, a newly identified ransomware strain designed for high-speed encryption and advanced evasion. The malware combines capabilities seen in other major ransomware families while introducing its own tooling, including techniques to hinder analysis and accelerate file encryption, making it a notable threat for enterprise defenders.
The report describes Rorschach as a sophisticated operation that can execute rapidly once deployed, increasing the risk of widespread impact before defenders can respond. Its blend of stealth, speed, and ransomware tradecraft highlights the continued evolution of financially motivated intrusion activity and underscores the need for organizations to harden endpoints, monitor for anomalous encryption behavior, and maintain resilient backup and recovery processes.
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Check Point Research publicly disclosed technical analysis of a ransomware strain it called Rorschach, describing it as a new sophisticated and fast ransomware family.
Group-IB investigated a ransomware attack against an industrial company in Europe in mid-January 2023 and identified the malware as a previously unknown strain it named BabLock, also tracked by Check Point as Rorschach. The attackers exploited CVE-2022-41352 in unpatched Zimbra, moved laterally via RDP and PuTTY, and encrypted Windows, Linux, network shares, and VMware ESXi systems.
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Several new ransomware groups and campaigns have emerged, demonstrating increased sophistication and targeting a range of organizations globally. The SafePay group has established itself as a major threat by operating as a centralized, closed ransomware operation, eschewing the typical Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) model. SafePay employs double extortion tactics, exfiltrating sensitive data before encrypting systems, and leverages rapid attack chains that often move from initial access to full encryption within 24 hours. Their methods include exploiting compromised credentials, misconfigured firewalls, and deploying backdoors for persistence, with a focus on operational security to avoid law enforcement detection. Other notable threats include the CrazyHunter ransomware, which has aggressively targeted healthcare organizations in Taiwan using advanced evasion techniques and multi-stage attacks that exploit Active Directory and propagate via Group Policy Objects. Meanwhile, the Ransomhouse group, operated by Jolly Scorpius, has upgraded its capabilities with a dual-key encryption system and automated attacks on VMware ESXi hypervisors, particularly focusing on German enterprises. These campaigns highlight a trend toward more targeted, technically advanced ransomware operations that prioritize both data theft and rapid system disruption, posing significant risks to critical infrastructure and sensitive industries.
Jun 29, 2026
Ransomware attacks continue to pose a significant threat to organizations, with recent surveys indicating that paying the ransom does not guarantee successful data recovery. According to Hiscox’s Cyber Readiness Report, only 60% of companies that paid a ransom were able to recover all or part of their data, while 40% lost their data despite payment. The technical sophistication of ransomware operators varies, with established groups more likely to provide functional decryptors, but many victims still face flawed encryption or unresponsive attackers. Additionally, the frequency of ransomware incidents has surged, with reports showing a near tripling of cases year-over-year in early 2025, and a majority of victims experiencing data theft even after paying ransoms. The ransomware landscape has evolved from high-volume, opportunistic attacks to a "big game hunting" model, where adversaries selectively target organizations with the most to lose and the greatest ability to pay. New criminal syndicates such as Spoiled Scorpius (RansomHub) and Howling Scorpius (Akira) are conducting sophisticated, long-term campaigns against high-value targets, often employing multi-extortion tactics that combine data encryption with threats of public exposure. This strategic shift has transformed ransomware from a purely IT issue into a critical business continuity threat, requiring organizations to adopt new defensive strategies and prepare for more calculated, high-impact attacks.
Jun 29, 2026
Reporting and research published in mid-January 2026 highlights continued **high ransomware activity** and rapid evolution in initial-access and evasion tradecraft. A Symantec/Carbon Black Threat Hunter Team study cited by *Help Net Security* reports ransomware actors claimed **4,737 attacks in 2025**, with only brief slowdowns after major disruptions; the abrupt April 2025 shutdown of **RansomHub** was followed by affiliates quickly shifting to other operations, while **LockBit** failed to recover after late-2024 law-enforcement action. The same reporting notes a broader shift toward **extortion models that don’t rely on encryption**, emphasizing data theft and coercion as groups diversify pressure tactics. Multiple technical reports describe how attackers are improving delivery and resilience. *BleepingComputer* says **Gootloader** now uses heavily malformed ZIP files—concatenating **500–1,000** ZIP archives and manipulating ZIP structures (e.g., truncated `EOCD`)—to crash or defeat common analysis tools while still extracting via Windows’ default utility, supporting its role as an initial-access vector often preceding ransomware. *The Register* reports **DeadLock** ransomware uses **Polygon smart contracts** to frequently rotate proxy infrastructure for victim communications (via an HTML wrapper pointing victims to the *Session* messenger), complicating blocking and takedown efforts; Group-IB notes DeadLock also departs from typical double-extortion by lacking a public data-leak site and instead threatening underground data sales. Separately, Microsoft-observed phishing described by *KnowBe4* shows threat actors exploiting **email routing/spoofing misconfigurations** to make phishing appear internal (often leveraging **Tycoon2FA**), while ReliaQuest’s trend report and a separate write-up on **CastleLoader** describe human-driven initial access (spearphishing/drive-by) and social-engineering lures such as **ClickFix** being used to stage loaders and follow-on payloads—underscoring that access-broker and loader ecosystems continue to feed ransomware and broader intrusion activity.
Jun 29, 2026