Press release · October 28, 2026 · globenewswire.com
Proofpoint, Inc. finds ransomware incidence falls to 18%
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Summary
Proofpoint, Inc. has published its 2027 Ransomware Report, based on a survey of IT and cybersecurity experts. The findings indicate that the share of organizations reporting a ransomware attack has fallen to about 18 percent, while many respondents remain unconvinced that their own protections are effective.
The report comes from the Proofpoint MSP Platform business unit, which serves managed service providers and small and mid-sized businesses. Preventive measures are widespread, yet 45 percent of respondents are not confident in the effectiveness of their own ransomware protection strategy.
Protected backup storage is reported by 91 percent of respondents, while 84 percent have a disaster recovery plan, up from 82 percent last year. Security awareness training is offered by 84 percent, a rise of 10 percentage points from 74 percent. Among respondents whose organizations had been attacked, around 3 percent said a ransom was paid to recover data.
Among respondents whose organizations had been hit by ransomware, 52 percent cited email or phishing as the attack vector, up from 46 percent previously. Compromised endpoints ranked second at 27 percent, nearly unchanged, and 7 percent cited exploited vulnerabilities. Generative AI has heightened concern about cyberattacks and ransomware for 84 percent of respondents, yet only 9 percent believe staff could reliably recognize AI-generated phishing or identity spoofing attempts.
Proofpoint MSP Platform surveyed 400 IT and cybersecurity experts for the study, which is its sixth annual ransomware survey. Respondents described their experiences with ransomware and their organizations' protection and recovery measures, and the survey was conducted in July and August 2026.
Daniel Hofmann, GM & EVP of Proofpoint MSP Platform, said: “Companies have noticeably stepped up their ransomware defences: secure backups, disaster recovery and security awareness training are now part of the security foundation in many organizations, which is an important step.” The report states that email security, employee awareness, identity and endpoint protection, and backup and recovery must work together.
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