Phishing campaigns, malicious emails and compromised credentials have overtaken software vulnerability exploitation as the leading entry points for ransomware attacks, according to Sophos' State of Ransomware 2026 report, signalling that threat actors are placing greater focus on stealing identities than breaking into unpatched systems.
The report is based on responses from 2,158 IT and cybersecurity leaders across 17 countries whose organisations experienced ransomware attacks during the previous year. While ransomware groups continue to encrypt data in a large share of incidents, the findings point to a clear change in how attackers gain their initial foothold inside enterprise networks.
Malicious email accounted for 26% of ransomware attacks, making it the most common root cause identified by respondents. Phishing followed closely at 24%, while compromised credentials were responsible for another 23% of incidents. In comparison, exploited vulnerabilities accounted for 18% of attacks, a sharp decline from 32% reported in the previous edition of the survey.
Taken together, email-based attacks and stolen credentials were responsible for nearly three-quarters of reported ransomware intrusions, showing that attackers are increasingly relying on social engineering and identity compromise instead of searching for vulnerable internet-facing systems.
Sophos also found that 67% of organisations described the ransomware incident as the most serious identity-related attack they encountered during the past 12 months. Across the surveyed organisations, almost four out of five ransomware attacks originated through compromised identities, placing user accounts and authentication systems at the centre of modern ransomware operations.
The findings also challenge a common assumption about multifactor authentication. Sophos reported that MFA had already been deployed in 97% of attacks where compromised credentials were identified as the root cause, yet attackers still succeeded in gaining access.
According to the company, the figures do not mean MFA has become ineffective. Instead, they point to weaknesses in deployment and the growing sophistication of credential theft techniques. Some organisations may have protected only part of their infrastructure, leaving legacy systems, remote access services or administrative interfaces outside MFA coverage. Those gaps can provide attackers with alternative routes into corporate environments.
Attackers have also refined methods for bypassing authentication protections. Adversary-in-the-middle phishing kits can intercept authentication sessions, while stolen browser cookies and authenticated session tokens allow attackers to access accounts without repeatedly triggering MFA challenges. MFA fatigue attacks, where users are bombarded with repeated authentication requests until one is approved, continue to be used against organisations relying on push-based authentication.
Among organisations using MFA, one-time passwords, push notification applications and passkeys were the most widely deployed authentication methods. FIDO2 security keys ranked behind those options despite offering one of the strongest defences against phishing because authentication is tied to legitimate websites and cannot be replayed through fake login pages.
Although software vulnerabilities no longer ranked as the leading ransomware entry point, Sophos cautioned that organisations should not reduce their focus on patch management. Instead, the report recommends pairing vulnerability remediation with stronger identity security controls to reduce opportunities for attackers to obtain valid credentials.
To reduce the risk of email-driven intrusions, Sophos recommends deploying advanced email filtering alongside domain authentication technologies including DMARC, DKIM and SPF. These controls help organisations verify legitimate senders, detect spoofed domains and prevent fraudulent emails from reaching employees. The company also recommends regular phishing awareness training to help users identify increasingly convincing social engineering campaigns.
Beyond email security, Sophos advises organisations to strengthen identity protection through Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR), enforce MFA across every access point and routinely review both human and machine identities to remove unnecessary privileges, dormant accounts and outdated credentials that could be abused during an attack.
Chet Wisniewski, director and global field chief information security officer at Sophos, said organisations with stronger ransomware resilience typically rely on multiple defensive layers rather than a single security control. Network segmentation can slow lateral movement after an initial breach, Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) reduces dependence on traditional VPNs, and continuous threat detection gives security teams more opportunities to identify malicious activity before ransomware spreads across the network.
The report also found that ransomware operators successfully encrypted data in 56% of reported attacks. Although median ransom demands and payments have fallen compared with previous years, the findings show that attackers continue to achieve their primary objective once they obtain access. For defenders, protecting identities has become just as important as patching software, with user accounts, credentials and authentication systems now representing the most frequently targeted path into enterprise environments.
