In the ever shifting world of cybersecurity threats, the old alarm bells of ransomware are becoming less common. According to a recent article from SC Media summarizing findings from the Picus Labs Red Report 2026, attackers are no longer prioritizing disruptive encryption attacks. Instead, their strategies now favor stealthy, long-term access and quiet data exfiltration that can go undetected for months.
This subtle but critical change in attacker behavior has profound implications for how organizations defend their networks and endpoints.
For years, ransomware dominated headlines and boardroom discussions. Loud, destructive, and expensive, ransomware attacks encrypted systems and demanded hefty payments. However, new data indicates that ransomware is declining as attackers seek more profitable and less obvious ways to exploit victims. In fact, the use of "Data Encrypted for Impact" techniques dropped by roughly 38 percent year over year.
Instead of encrypting files and announcing their presence, cybercriminals are quietly harvesting credentials, establishing multi-stage footholds, and extracting sensitive data over extended periods. These stealthy intrusions are often termed advanced persistent threats (APTs), characterized by long-term unauthorized access without detection.
Credential theft, especially from password stores, now appears in nearly one out of four attacks. Once credentials are compromised, attackers can masquerade as legitimate users, making their activity blend in with normal network operations.
There are several clear reasons why threat actors are abandoning noisy ransomware campaigns in favor of silent persistence:
1. Stealth increases lifetime value of access
Ransomware forces defenders to react immediately. Encryption reveals an attack and often leads to containment, investigation, and recovery efforts. But if an attacker can remain undetected deep inside a network, they can siphon off data, intellectual property, and credentials for months without triggering alarms.
2. Detection tools struggle with low-noise activity
Many traditional security tools and endpoint protection platforms are optimized to spot sudden spikes in malicious behavior — like rapid file encryption or ransomware signatures. But slow, methodical exploitation and credential abuse generate far fewer alerts, enabling attackers to hide in plain sight.
3. The economics of cybercrime have changed
Selling stolen data, credentials, or access on underground markets can be more attractive than one-time ransom payments. Once attackers achieve persistent access, they can monetize it multiple times by reselling access, targeting connected systems, or deploying secondary attacks.
The shift to stealthy, long-term access fundamentally challenges the "Detect and Respond" approach that many organizations rely on today. Detection and response tools are often reactive; they wait until something suspicious happens and then attempt to mitigate it. This model is inherently flawed when attackers make every effort to avoid generating suspicion in the first place.
Rather than waiting for an alert that may never come, defenders need strategies that minimize the opportunities for attackers to gain a foothold and propagate. That’s where a proactive, containment-focused approach becomes essential.
Traditional detection-first security frameworks are no longer sufficient. Instead, the industry must embrace a model that prevents execution of unauthorized code, isolates suspicious behavior in real time, and contains threats before they can impact critical assets.
That’s exactly what AppGuard delivers. AppGuard is a proven endpoint protection solution with over a decade of real-world success in stopping unknown threats, zero-day exploits, and stealthy intrusions. Rather than waiting for a breach signal, AppGuard isolates risky behavior and stops attackers from executing harmful actions, regardless of whether they evade detection. This isolation and containment mindset fundamentally changes the attacker’s calculus — if they cannot run their tools, they cannot persist.
The shift from loud ransomware to low-noise, long-term access attacks means your organization could be breached for weeks or months without ever knowing it. Sensitive customer data, intellectual property, and internal credentials may already be at risk. Traditional antivirus and endpoint detection tools are often too slow or too noisy to catch these subtle threats.
But you do not have to wait for an attack to disrupt operations or steal data. Adopting solutions like AppGuard empowers your business to harden endpoints, deny unauthorized execution paths, and prevent attackers from establishing the silent foothold that fuels modern cybercrime.
If the idea of silent breaches and persistent attackers operating undetected keeps you up at night, it’s time to rethink your cybersecurity strategy. Talk with us at CHIPS about how AppGuard can transform your defenses from reactive detection to proactive isolation and containment.
Protect your business today by moving beyond detect and respond. Contact CHIPS now to learn how AppGuard can prevent these evolving threats and safeguard your organization against stealthy, long-term access attacks.
Interested in a robust defense against tomorrow’s threats? Let’s start the conversation.
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