Europe Evolves Into Ransomware’s Favorite Region


Source URL: www.darkreading.com/cybersecu…
Dark Reading reports that ransomware activity against European organizations has increased materially after a global lull, citing Black Kite research that tracked 684 publicly known ransomware attacks across Europe during the first four months of 2026, a 55 per cent increase from the 441 recorded during the same period in 2025. The analysis argues that ransomware groups may be shifting attention toward Europe because of U.S. target saturation, availability of stealer logs, unpatched vulnerabilities, supplier exposure and the economic attractiveness of larger European markets. The operational implication is that organizations with European operations or suppliers should treat ransomware exposure as both a direct enterprise risk and a third-party resilience issue, with attention to vulnerability management, credential compromise, vendor concentration and recovery readiness.