2025 Picus Blue Report: Why Ransomware Still Evades Defenses
In early 2025, the Picus Blue Report identified a concerning trend in global ransomware attacks: despite widespread awareness of ransomware tactics, organizations failed to prevent over a third of attack attempts, with prevention rates plummeting to 62%. Far more alarming, only 3% of simulated data exfiltration attempts were effectively blocked, exposing substantial gaps in data security frameworks. Attackers leveraged a blend of known and emerging ransomware variants to infiltrate networks, bypassing traditional and next-gen defenses by exploiting east-west traffic and insufficient segmentation. This led to successful encryption and large-scale data theft, disrupting business continuity for multiple sectors globally. This incident underscores a broader industry challenge: as ransomware evolves, so do the techniques for bypassing established defenses. The drastic fall in exfiltration prevention highlights an urgent need for modernized controls, especially with the regulatory and reputational stakes of breaches rising sharply in 2025.
Kill Chain