Ransomware, GenAI Exposure, and the Rising Cyber Threat
Global cyber threats escalated in January 2026, with organisations facing an average of over 2,000 attacks per week, underscoring a worrying acceleration in both traditional and cutting-edge attack vectors.
According to the recent insights in Global Cyber Attacks Rise In January 2026 As Ransomware Activity Increases And GenAI-Driven Data Exposure Expands from Brand Spur (sourced from Check Point Research), the threat landscape is evolving in scale and complexity.
Cyber criminals are not merely increasing the volume of attacks but are getting smarter about how they exploit emerging technologies and organisational weaknesses. This trend puts businesses of all sizes at heightened risk of operational disruption, data compromise, and financial loss.
More Attacks, More Sophistication
The January 2026 report reveals a 17 percent year-over-year rise in total attacks and a 10 percent increase in publicly reported ransomware incidents compared with January 2025. Organizations in North America and Europe have seen the lion’s share of these extortion attempts, with countries such as the United States representing nearly half of all recorded cases. Ransomware groups like Qilin, LockBit, and Akira were among the most active, signaling that both well-established and emerging groups are intensifying their campaigns.
These figures reflect global patterns seen across multiple recent threat reports. Year-over-year ransomware activity has surged dramatically, with one analysis finding a 49 percent increase in publicly disclosed attacks and a 37 percent rise in undisclosed incidents in 2025 alone. Meanwhile, healthcare organizations vital and sensitive in nature often find themselves among the most targeted, with regulators reporting average breach costs in the millions.
Generative AI Expands the Attack Surface
One of the most significant developments in this new threat environment is the role of generative AI (GenAI). As organizations adopt AI-powered tools at an unprecedented rate, new pathways for data exposure are emerging. For example, in January, one in every 30 AI prompts submitted from corporate networks was flagged as posing a significant risk of leaking sensitive information. These unmanaged GenAI workflows can unintentionally reveal proprietary data and create fresh opportunities for attackers to infiltrate systems or phish credentials.
The rapid adoption of GenAI tech has not only introduced accidental exposures but has also enabled attackers to scale familiar techniques. Reports show that AI encouragement among ransomware-as-a-service groups is becoming mainstream, as operators promote automation and efficiency features to affiliates.
Why Traditional Approaches Are No Longer Enough
Despite ongoing investments in threat intelligence and detection tools with 9 in 10 cybersecurity professionals planning to deepen their threat intelligence spending in 2026; the nature of breaches continues to evolve faster than many defensive strategies. Most traditional cybersecurity models still rely heavily on a detect and respond methodology, which means threats are only addressed after they have infiltrated the network.
That reactive approach is increasingly inadequate when attackers are moving faster and leveraging sophisticated techniques, such as AI-enabled automation, lateral movement, and highly dynamic ransomware toolkits. Some recent incident response data shows attackers progressing from initial access to data exfiltration in as little as 72 minutes, four times faster than just one year ago.
The Case for Isolation and Containment
Given the speed and stealth of modern cyber threats, businesses need to shift from a defensive posture that focuses primarily on detection to one that prioritises isolation and containment. While detect and respond strategies can alert teams after a breach, they do not inherently stop the threat from spreading or causing damage once within the environment. By contrast, an isolation and containment approach actively limits an attacker’s ability to move laterally, execute malicious activities, or access critical assets in the first place.
This is where AppGuard stands apart. AppGuard offers a prevention-first endpoint protection solution that has been proven over more than a decade to stop advanced threats without relying on signatures, heuristics, or post-infiltration detection. Its unique containment strategy ensures that malicious software and behaviours are blocked before they can threaten the business.
Protect Your Business Before It’s Too Late
As the threat landscape continues to shift with ransomware growing more prevalent and GenAI presenting new exposure risks the need for proactive defence has never been clearer. AppGuard’s proven isolation and containment technology offers organisations a robust layer of real security that stops threats at the endpoint, rather than simply flagging them after the fact.
Business owners and decision-makers must act now to fortify their defences. Talk with us at CHIPS about how AppGuard can prevent incidents like these and help your organisation make the critical shift away from outdated detect and respond strategies. Let us help you build a more resilient and secure future.
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