Comparitech researchers have published a study looking at government ransomware attacks in Q3 2026, finding that there was a 47% in attacks since Q2 and a 91% increase from the same period last year. The study breaks down some of the biggest government ransomware attacks in the quarter, which countries were most targeted, which ransomware gangs were most prolific, the average ransom demand, and more.
Rebecca Moody, Head of Data Research at Comparitech, provided the following comment on the findings:
“It goes without saying that governments remain a focus for hackers because of the sheer amount of disruption these attacks can cause, both through system encryption and data theft. But what our Q3 report demonstrates is that, as ransomware attacks continue to increase in volume, it has never been more important for government entities to do what they can to mitigate these risks and have a worst-case-scenario plan in place. No government entity, large or small, previously targeted or not, is immune.
As part of their worst-case-scenario plan, government entities not only need to have a clear strategy in place for how they will deal with an attack (e.g. making sure there are regular backups in place to get systems back online as soon as possible), but they also need to assume that a data breach has occurred. Hackers will have stolen data in the majority of cases, so issuing warnings to anyone involved promptly is essential to safeguarding this data. Better to warn people straight away and retract this warning later on if data hasn’t been stolen, than to avoid warning people until months after the attack when there’s little they can do if their data has been floating around on the dark web for all that time.”
More info here: https://www.comparitech.com/news/government-ransomware-roundup-q3-2026-stats-on-attacks-ransoms-and-data-breaches/
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This entry was posted on October 29, 2026 at 9:00 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Comparitech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Comparitech Research: Government Ransomware: Q3 2026 stats on attacks, ransoms, and data breaches
Comparitech researchers have published a study looking at government ransomware attacks in Q3 2026, finding that there was a 47% in attacks since Q2 and a 91% increase from the same period last year. The study breaks down some of the biggest government ransomware attacks in the quarter, which countries were most targeted, which ransomware gangs were most prolific, the average ransom demand, and more.
Rebecca Moody, Head of Data Research at Comparitech, provided the following comment on the findings:
“It goes without saying that governments remain a focus for hackers because of the sheer amount of disruption these attacks can cause, both through system encryption and data theft. But what our Q3 report demonstrates is that, as ransomware attacks continue to increase in volume, it has never been more important for government entities to do what they can to mitigate these risks and have a worst-case-scenario plan in place. No government entity, large or small, previously targeted or not, is immune.
As part of their worst-case-scenario plan, government entities not only need to have a clear strategy in place for how they will deal with an attack (e.g. making sure there are regular backups in place to get systems back online as soon as possible), but they also need to assume that a data breach has occurred. Hackers will have stolen data in the majority of cases, so issuing warnings to anyone involved promptly is essential to safeguarding this data. Better to warn people straight away and retract this warning later on if data hasn’t been stolen, than to avoid warning people until months after the attack when there’s little they can do if their data has been floating around on the dark web for all that time.”
More info here: https://www.comparitech.com/news/government-ransomware-roundup-q3-2026-stats-on-attacks-ransoms-and-data-breaches/
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This entry was posted on October 29, 2026 at 9:00 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Comparitech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.