New research from Ontinue reveals evolutions in threat actor techniques, with emphasis on ransomware and vishing. By analyzing data from H2 of 2024 and Q1 of 2025, the research also found that malicious actors are becoming more aggressive in their attacks.

Ransomware Trends

The report found that ransomware attacks increased by 132%. Nathaniel Jones, Vice President of Threat Research at Darktrace, comments, “Ransomware groups are evolving their tactics beyond phishing to include interactions with IT teams to elicit information to improve access, SaaS-based attacks, and even studying file-transfer technology for rapid exploitation and double extortion methods. For IT administrators and practitioners, it is crucial to prioritize your vulnerability management program and establish possible attack paths across your estate to prevent unauthorize access. This includes applying best practices across the business and wider IT teams.”

Additionally, the report emphasizes that malicious actors are leveraging double extortion, operational disruption and data destruction...