{"id":214528,"date":"2026-02-17T11:18:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T16:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/17\/data-only-extortion-grows-as-ransomware-gangs-seek-better-profits\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T11:35:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T16:35:08","slug":"data-only-extortion-grows-as-ransomware-gangs-seek-better-profits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/17\/data-only-extortion-grows-as-ransomware-gangs-seek-better-profits\/","title":{"rendered":"Data-only extortion grows as ransomware gangs seek better profits"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cybersecuritydive.com\/news\/ransomware-extortion-bec-arctic-wolf\/812321\/\">Data-only extortion grows as ransomware gangs seek better profits<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cybersecuritydive.com\/news\/ransomware-extortion-bec-arctic-wolf\/812321\/\">https:\/\/www.cybersecuritydive.com\/news\/ransomware-extortion-bec-arctic-wolf\/812321\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-02-17 11:18:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"www.cybersecuritydive.com\">www.cybersecuritydive.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>        Listen to the article<br \/>\n        <span class=\"text-to-speech__button__audio-length\">4 min<\/span><\/p>\n<p>            This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback.<\/p>\n<h3><span><span><span><strong><span><span>Dive Brief:<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><span><span><span><span><span><span>Data-only extortion attacks surged elevenfold over the past year, according to <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>a report that the security firm Arctic Wolf released<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><span><span><span><span><span><span> on Tuesday, illustrating how ransomware gangs are capitalizing on businesses\u2019 fears of reputational damage.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span><span><span><span><span><span>In 22% of cases that Arctic Wolf responded to between November 2024 and November 2025, hackers only threatened to expose stolen data, rather than to leave it encrypted \u2014 a significant increase from the prior period, when only 2% of cases unfolded that way.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span><span><span><span><span><span>Arctic Wolf\u2019s report also detailed hackers\u2019 most common intrusion techniques, offering a warning to businesses about which of their systems could be the most vulnerable.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><span><span><span><strong><span><span>Dive Insight:<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>The increase in data-only ransomware attacks \u2014 a trend that <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>other firms<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><span><span><span><span><span><span> <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>have also reported<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><span><span><span><span><span><span> \u2014 reflects a change in hackers\u2019 motivations, according to Arctic Wolf. \u201cIt now appears that some threat actors \u2026 have begun abandoning encryption altogether to focus purely on data exfiltration and extortion in hopes of better net returns,\u201d the company said.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>Ransomware accounted for 44% of Arctic Wolf\u2019s incident-response engagements during the period covered in the report. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>The manufacturing sector<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><span><span><span><span><span><span> bore the brunt of the attacks, followed by law firms, schools, financial institutions and health-care organizations.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>Ransomware gangs have increasingly adopted <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>affiliate models<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><span><span><span><span><span><span> to generate more revenue, reduce expenses and \u201cattract and retain a broader pool of cybercriminals,\u201d according to Arctic Wolf. The result, the company said, was \u201ca more competitive and interconnected ecosystem,\u201d with hackers moving seamlessly between groups and the brand names of individual gangs mattering less.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>The&#8230;<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cybersecuritydive.com\/news\/ransomware-extortion-bec-arctic-wolf\/812321\/\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Data-only extortion grows as ransomware gangs seek better profits https:\/\/www.cybersecuritydive.com\/news\/ransomware-extortion-bec-arctic-wolf\/812321\/ Publish Date: 2026-02-17 11:18:00 Source&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":214529,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/imgproxy.divecdn.com\/7eClIEpkaqdDq-BCzSLXICE27sGjrfOYZFN7uyEmnlo\/g:ce\/rs:fit:770:435\/Z3M6Ly9kaXZlc2l0ZS1zdG9yYWdlL2RpdmVpbWFnZS9HZXR0eUltYWdlcy0xMzk5OTgwMDQ2LmpwZw==.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[57],"class_list":["post-214528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cybersecurity","tag-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214528"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214528"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":214530,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214528\/revisions\/214530"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}