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Cybersecurity statistics / Identity

79% of ransomware attacks start with an identity-based approach.

PublisherSophos
ReportThe State of Ransomware 2026
Published15 July 2026
TopicsIdentity, Ransomware

Published by Sophos in The State of Ransomware 2026, 15 July 2026. The figure is taken from the report as published; the full methodology is in the source.

View the original report

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Compromised credentials accounted for 23% of ransomware incidents.
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67% of root causes across 661 incident response and managed detection and response (MDR) cases are identity-related.
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Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is missing where it matters in 59% of IR and MDR cases.
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97% of victims where compromised credentials are identified as the root cause have MFA enabled in some form at the time of the attack.
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100% of executives have breach data linking their name to at least one current email address.
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