In this month’s edition of RSecurity’s Cybersecurity Insights, we present detailed ransomware statistics and analysis from January 2026, highlighting the most significant ransomware attacks and cyber incidents shaping the global cyber threat landscape. This ransomware report for January 2026 examines key attack vectors, industry-specific vulnerabilities, and actionable security insights to help organizations better understand emerging ransomware threats.
January 2026 Ransomware Attack Trends
Total Ransomware Attacks: 560 victims attacked publicly disclosed as ransomware attacks recorded in janaury
Zero-Day Vulnerabilities Discovered:In January 2026, 3 zero-day vulnerabilities were publicly disclosed or patched, including one that was actively exploited in the wild as part of Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday release.
Phishing Campaigns:An estimated 3.4 billion phishing emails sent per day and continued growth in credential-theft campaigns tied to URL links.
Data Records Exposed: Based on publicly disclosed breaches and major data leaks in January 2026, 252.5 million records exposed
Top Affected Industries & Ransomware Datas
Most targeted sectors: Manufacturing, healthcare, professional services, government
According to the January 2026 report, ransomware statistics show manufacturing remains the most targeted sector.
Primary motives: Financial extortion, data theft, espionage — a pattern consistent with APT-driven cybercrime and ransomware groups
These figures reflect how cyber threats and ransomware attacks remain heavily concentrated in high-value digital economies.
Top Cybersecurity Incidents – January 2026
Trust Wallet Chrome Extension Hack Drains $8.5M via Shai-Hulud Supply Chain Attack :Trust Wallet confirmed that a Shai-Hulud supply-chain attack led to a trojanized Google Chrome extension update, allowing attackers to steal wallet seed phrases and drain ~$8.5 million from over 2,500 wallets. The breach was caused by leaked developer secrets that enabled unauthorized updates to the Chrome Web Store.
Chrome Extensions Caught Stealing ChatGPT and DeepSeek Chats from 900,000 Users - Chrome extensions with over 900,000 users were found secretly stealing ChatGPT and DeepSeek conversations and browsing data and sending them to attacker-controlled servers in a campaign dubbed “Prompt Poaching,” while even some legitimate analytics extensions like Similarweb were also caught collecting AI chat inputs and outputs for tracking and monetization.
Critical n8n Vulnerability (CVSS 10.0) Allows Unauthenticated Attackers to Take Full Control - A critical CVSS 10.0 flaw in n8n (CVE-2026-21858, “Ni8mare”) allows attackers to abuse a Content-Type confusion bug in webhooks to read arbitrary server files, steal secrets, bypass authentication, and ultimately execute commands for full system takeover, putting every connected API, database, and cloud integration at risk, with all versions up to 1.65.0.l.
Palo Alto Fixes GlobalProtect DoS Flaw That Can Crash Firewalls Without Login - Palo Alto Networks has patched a high-severity DoS flaw (CVE-2026-0227) affecting GlobalProtect on PAN-OS and Prisma Access, where a PoC exists and repeated unauthenticated attacks can force firewalls into maintenance mode, making immediate updates critical.
Microsoft Fixes 114 Windows Flaws in January 2026 Patch, One Actively Exploited -Microsoft released its January 2026 Patch Tuesday fixing 114 vulnerabilities, including an actively exploited Desktop Window Manager flaw (CVE-2026-20805) that could aid attackers in bypassing key Windows security protections, making immediate patching critical.
Hackers exploit Modular DS WordPress plugin flaw for admin access - Hackers are actively exploiting a maximum-severity authentication bypass flaw (CVE-2026-23550) in the Modular DS WordPress plugin, allowing remote admin-level takeover of over 40,000 sites, prompting urgent upgrades to version 2.5.2 as warned by Patchstack.
Key Ransomware Statistics and Attack Trends
Cloud & Identity Threats Remain Core Attack Pillars: Voice-phishing and credential harvesting campaigns against enterprise SSO services (e.g., Okta) show attackers leveraging identity compromise and social engineering as strategic paths into cloud and SaaS environments.
Supply-Chain Attacks Are Escalating: The supply-chain breach that compromised Trust Wallet’s Chrome extension and enabled the theft of over $8 M+ in crypto assets highlights how attackers are increasingly targeting trusted software update systems and CI/CD pipelines rather than direct vulnerabilities in products themselves.
Trend Reports Emphasize AI, Regulation, & Resilience: Industry analyses for 2026 confirm that defenders must balance active threat mitigation with broader operational resilience, AI governance, and regulatory compliance strategies as attackers escalate hybrid technical and social vectors.
RSecurity Cyber Risk Perspective
For Small Businesses
Small businesses continue to be prime targets as attackers increasingly exploit trusted software, browser extensions, and delayed patching rather than sophisticated intrusion techniques.
Key Risks
What To Do
For Large Enterprises
Large organizations faced high-impact, low-visibility attacks in January 2026, with adversaries prioritizing scale, trusted infrastructure abuse, and operational disruption over noisy ransomware campaigns.
