State of Ransomware: February 2026
Published 1 March 2026 · ThreatVectr Intelligence
Ransomware groups claimed 781 attacks on organisations worldwide in February 2026, up 9% on the previous month's 714. 55 distinct groups posted at least one victim during the month, across 68 countries. The busiest single day was 7 February, with 71 victims listed.
Qilin was the most active operation of the month, claiming 114 victims — 15% of all listings. The Gentlemen (84) and Cl0p (79) followed. 7 groups appeared for the first time, including Payload, Auditteam, Shadowbyt3$, Cipherforce.
Manufacturing bore the heaviest targeting, with 117 claimed victims, ahead of Technology (111) and Business Services (92). By geography, United States accounted for 360 claims — 46% of the month — with Germany (38) and Canada (35) next.
Claims per day — February 2026
Most active groups
- 1Qilin·11415%
- 2The Gentlemen48411%
- 3Cl0p27910%
- 4Akira2638%
- 5Play3476%
- 6NightSpire3425%
- 7INC Ransom3415%
- 8DragonForce7365%
- 9LockBit9354%
- 10Vect30203%
First seen this month:Payload, Auditteam, Shadowbyt3$, Cipherforce, Prinzeugen, Kittykatkrew, Atomsilo
Most-targeted sectors
- 1Manufacturing117
- 2Technology111
- 3Business Services92
- 4Construction52
- 5Financial Services52
- 6Healthcare52
- 7Consumer Services48
- 8Transportation/Logistics38
- 9Agriculture and Food Production28
- 10Hospitality and Tourism26
Most-affected countries
- 1United States360
- 2Germany38
- 3Canada35
- 4Italy21
- 5Brazil19
- 6France19
- 7United Kingdom18
- 8Australia17
- 9Spain15
- 10India15
Every figure in this report counts a claim posted to a criminal leak site, observed via the monitoring service ransomware.live. A listing is an extortion tactic, not a confirmed breach: some claims are exaggerated, some are duplicates under new branding, and a few are outright false. Companies named in listings have not necessarily confirmed any incident, and ThreatVectr does not publish victim names from this dataset.
Cite this report
This report is free to cite and reproduce with attribution. Suggested citation:
ThreatVectr, “State of Ransomware: February 2026”, https://threatvectr.com/ransomware-tracker/reports/february-2026
Journalists and researchers: for questions about the data or methodology, contact the newsdesk.
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