New data from Comparitech disclosed a record 997 ransomware attacks worldwide in August 2026, averaging 32 attacks per day and representing a 23% increase from 809 attacks in July. The total surpassed the previous monthly record of 988 attacks recorded in February 2025. Businesses accounted for 861 attacks, up 24% from July, while ransomware incidents targeting healthcare providers rose 30% to 69. Utility companies recorded the sharpest sector increase, with attacks doubling from five in July to 10 in August.<\/p>\r\n
Ransomware surge was led by Qilin and The Gentlemen, which together accounted for more than 26% of August\u2019s attacks, with Qilin claiming 157 incidents and The Gentlemen 107. Qilin\u2019s attack claims increased 22% during the month, while The Gentlemen\u2019s declined 21%; Qilin also had 12 confirmed attacks, compared with eight for The Gentlemen.<\/p>\r\n
Comparitech recorded 23% more attacks against manufacturers in August, with 12 confirmed incidents, while attacks against retailers increased 30%. Clop recorded the largest increase in claims, adding 45 victims to its site compared with one in July, with the attacks linked to exploitation of the PTC Windchill vulnerability.<\/p>\r\n
\u201cThe healthcare sector saw a 30 percent increase in attacks, but utility companies saw the biggest spike,\u201d Rebecca Moody, head of data research at Comparitech, wrote<\/a> in a company blog post. \u201cHere, attacks doubled, rising from five in July to 10 in August.\u00a0Law firms (up 52%), tech companies (up 42%), and finance companies (up 40%) also saw significant increases. https:\/\/industrialcyber.co\/ransomware\/global-ransomware-attacks-hit-record-997-in-august-2026-as-utility-healthcare-and-business-attacks-surge\/<\/a>Education (down 4%) and the food and beverage sector (down 5%) were the only areas to see ransomware attacks decrease.\u201d \u00a0 Read On: <\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n <\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" New data from Comparitech disclosed a record 997 ransomware attacks worldwide in August 2026, averaging 32 attacks per day and representing a 23% increase from 809 attacks in July. The total surpassed the previous monthly record of 988 attacks recorded in February 2025. Businesses accounted for 861 attacks, up 24% from July, while ransomware incidents […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":78707,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[640,636],"tags":[641,637],"class_list":["post-78706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence-ai","category-ransomware","tag-artificial-intelligence-2","tag-ransomware"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t