Stop ransomware at every stage

Darktrace’s AI reveals and autonomously blocks unusual behavior indicative of a ransomware attack, augmenting human defenders and securing the business.  

10,000
Darktrace customers

Ransomware threat actors
are innovating

Three trends observed by Darktrace analysts across our 10,000 customers

Remote access exploitation

Darktrace’s SOC observed malicious actors’ regularly abusing remote network access solutions, particularly VPNs, to gain entry into organizations’ networks

Adversary-in-the-middle phishing

This type of phishing is a popular technique among threat actors that bypasses MFA protections on SaaS accounts

Data exfiltration

Data exfiltration remains a common objective for malicious actors, observed in both 'double extortion' attacks and corporate and industrial espionage operations

Accelerate your investigations

10x

Darktrace's Cyber AI Analyst finds connections between isolated events and surfaces full security incidents, prioritized and contextualized. It has saved security teams the equivalent of up to 50,000 hours of investigation time per year.

Ransomware is a
multi-stage problem

Take targeted, autonomous action at every stage of the attack.

Stop ransomware from reaching the inbox

Stop attacks at the earliest stage by catching phishing-born ransomware before it hits the inbox. Darktrace’s AI understands the context of every email communication to detect subtle signs of attacks and neutralizes the threat

Pull the plug on C2 communications

Identify subtle anomalies such as unusual server activity, new port connections, and unexpected file transfers, stopping malicious beaconing to previously unseen external destinations before an attack can escalate

Stop lateral movement in its tracks

Stop lateral movement by detecting anomalous activity including signs of compromise like unusual scanning, unauthorized SMB writes, and credential misuse, protecting against full-scale attacks

See signs of privilege escalation

As an attacker begins to increase their knowledge of the network, perform scans, and escalate their privileges, Darktrace correlates this activity with other events in the attack chain giving you the full picture

Stop data exfiltration immediately

If all else fails, Darktrace detects and stops the exfiltration of sensitive files to unusual endpoints, stopping an attacker in their tracks before they can encrypt and extort

Customer story

How Darktrace protected Meridian Cooperative from ransomware

“The platform alerted us, autonomously blocked the scanning, and gave our team the critical data and time needed to investigate and act – helping prevent what could have been a ransomware-type incident.” 


–Greg Gray, CIO

95%

of security incidents automatically triaged or contained

To Coworkers Looking At A Powerline
500

analyst hours saved in just 13 working days

3.92s

average time taken to respond 
autonomously to threats

Threat story: Ransomware

How Darktrace broke down Akira ransomware without known malware signatures

Initial intrusion

Attackers gained access using compromised credentials over SMB from an external IP. The login originated from a new endpoint and succeeded on the first attempt, indicating credential theft rather than brute force.

Darktrace detected the unusual login from a new device and raised an early-stage security alert, flagging the SMB authentication as anomalous.

Privilege escalation and lateral movement

The compromised device began authenticating to multiple internal endpoints using suspicious combinations of usernames and privileged accounts. NTLM authentication attempts and SMB connections showed patterns not typically observed in peer behavior.

Darktrace's AI identified the abnormal credential use and privilege escalation activity, triggering an autonomous response to restrict the device's lateral movement.

Command and control

The device connected to rare external endpoints linked to Akira infrastructure using non-standard ports and unusual HTTP requests. The traffic lacked historical precedent and occurred outside normal hours.

Darktrace recognized the outbound connections as a deviation from normal external traffic and autonomously blocked connections to the suspicious IP addresses.

Ransomware execution and data exfiltration

Several gigabytes of data were exfiltrated via Rclone over HTTPS to an external endpoint. The volume and timing of data transfer fell outside of expected norms.


Darktrace detected the anomalous data transfer and initiated an autonomous response, blocking further uploads and isolating the device from the network.

Get ahead of the attack

Get proactive about ransomware – prioritize on true cyber risk and harden defenses ahead of time

Map critical attack paths

Uncover the most likely and exposed routes to your sensitive data with complete visibility across your digital architecture

Tailored incident simulations

Build team confidence by mapping scenarios based on attacks seen in the wild into your current environment with the same time urgency as a real threat

Go beyond simple patch lists

Get prioritized mitigation steps paired with their potential risk outcomes, making it easier to take proactive steps toward greater resilience

See your most at risk users

Discover your riskiest users and assets based on liability, access, and exposure, and then shore up defenses around them

Get ahead of the attack

Get proactive about ransomware – prioritize on true cyber risk and harden defenses ahead of time

Map critical attack paths

Uncover the most likely and exposed routes to your sensitive data with complete visibility across your digital architecture

Tailored incident simulations

Build team confidence by mapping scenarios based on attacks seen in the wild into your current environment with the same time urgency as a real threat

See your most at risk users

Discover your riskiest users and assets based on liability, access, and exposure, and then shore up defenses around them

Go beyond simple patch lists

Get prioritized mitigation steps paired with their potential risk outcomes, making it easier to take proactive steps toward greater resilience

Over 267 reviews on Gartner Peer Insights

4.3
on Gartner Peer Insights
“The platform gave our team the critical data and time needed to investigate and act – helping prevent what could have been a ransomware-type incident.”
Greg Gray
CIO of Meridian Cooperative
“In a world where threat actors can compromise your network and launch a ransomware attack in as little as 90 minutes, we needed something that was autonomous.”
Director Information Security
Banking
"From the Darktrace / EMAIL proof of concept, it was possible to see how effective it was in identifying IoCs in emails and, based on this, to apply preventive actions against possible ransomware.”
IT Security & Risk Management Associate
Retail
“An exceptional threat hunting product and has backed up the product with excellent implementation and ongoing support”
Director of IT
Energy and Utilities
“Darktrace made it possible to block the start of a cyber-attack in less than 10 seconds!”
IT Manager
Healthcare and Biotech
Recommended resources

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LockBit Ransomware Insights

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New Threat on the Prowl: Investigating Lynx Ransomware

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Darktrace Investigation into Medusa Ransomware

See how Darktrace empowers organizations to fight back against Medusa ransomware, enhancing their cybersecurity posture with advanced technology.

Darktrace Investigation Into Medusa Ransomware

See how Darktrace empowers organizations to fight back against Medusa ransomware, enhancing their cybersecurity posture with advanced technology.

See Darktrace in action

Protect your business from ransomware. 
See what Darktrace AI finds in your environment.

Ransomware

Frequently asked questions

 What is the price of a ransomware attack?

The price of a ransomware attack goes far beyond the ransom itself. Cybercriminals often encrypt data on a victim’s device, steal sensitive information, and render systems completely unusable. Victims are typically asked to pay a ransom in exchange for a decryption key but paying the ransom doesn’t guarantee data recovery. Many victims still suffer data loss, extended downtime, and operational disruption. For businesses, ransomware can halt production, interrupt customer services, and lead to severe revenue loss. This makes strong ransomware protection an urgent priority.

What are elements of a ransomware target?

A typical ransomware target is an organization that holds valuable, sensitive, or mission-critical data. Businesses deemed critical infrastructure typically providing essential services such as healthcare, energy, or education, are especially vulnerable due to the urgency of their operations. Organizations that handle large volumes of data or maintain confidential customer, employee, or financial information also face elevated risk. Attackers often seek out companies that store valuable assets, knowing disruption can pressure them to pay. Regardless of size, any company without adequate ransomware protection and anti-ransomware software could be a potential target. 

How does AI impact ransomware attacks?

AI has changed the nature of ransomware both as a weapon and as a defense. Cybercriminals are now using AI to automate, scale, and augment ransomware attacks. These AI-powered threats move faster, adapt to environments, and evade traditional defenses.  

Ransomware protection tools trained on past threats can’t always detect novel attacks. However, Darktrace is a uniquely positioned ransomware solution that detects novel threats because it does not rely on signatures or known ransomware strains. Instead, it continuously learns what’s normal for each organization, spotting early signs of compromise by detecting subtle changes in behavior. This AI-driven approach to ransomware protection uncovers threats as they emerge, even if they’ve never been seen before. By identifying anomalies early, it helps stop ransomware before it can encrypt files or cause data loss. In today’s threat landscape, AI and ransomware prevention go hand in hand.

Does Darktrace offer ransomware incident response services?

Yes, Darktrace / Incident Readiness & Recovery empowers teams to anticipate, withstand and recover better from cyber-attacks. Users can pre-emptively reduce disruption by initiating incident response earlier in the attack lifecycle with the AI Recovery Engine. Here, Darktrace provides tailored playbook steps for effective recovery, based on a deep understanding of your environment and each incident (without the need for regular upkeep).

The Darktrace Incident Interface brings together everything related to an incident like what actions were taken, any earlier risks that could have been stopped, and what they might have led to. It also integrates with EDRs, ticketing systems, and popular data recovery tools, so it fits easily into your existing incident response workflows.

Darktrace’s Readiness Reporting shows whether your technology and teams are prepared, giving you confidence that everything will work when it matters most. Incident Reports offer a clear, automated summary of attacks, while Playbook Reports explain the reasoning behind each action taken. These reports can be saved for future reference or shared with third parties like incident response partners or regulators.

How quickly can Darktrace respond to a ransomware incident?

Darktrace’s AI can respond at every stage of the incident kill chain. With Self-Learning AI, Darktrace detects early signs of a ransomware attack like phishing emails, unusual credential use, and privileged escalation. Also, Autonomous Response allows Darktrace to take action by rewriting malicious phishing links and halting malicious activity across the network.  

What preventive measures does Darktrace recommend?  

Darktrace products and solutions support a continuous threat and exposure management (CTEM) model approach to preventative cybersecurity. The two key products, Darktrace / Attack Surface Management provides a natural accompaniment to Darktrace / Proactive Exposure Management, combining vulnerability and ASM tooling. Darktrace / Attack Surface Management will scope assets that are externally facing to the business, including Shadow IT. Those vulnerable assets ‘Identified in ASM’ will appear in attack paths and have altered exposure scores to account for their public visibility. Darktrace / Proactive Exposure Management continuously assesses the most vulnerable and high-value attack paths across your business, helping prevent potential risks from escalating into real compromises.

What industries does Darktrace specialize in protecting from ransomware?  

Darktrace customers come from a wide array of industries and sizes. Darktrace has been at the forefront of ransomware protection for these organizations. Visit our customer page to learn more about which industries Darktrace covers. Also, visit our “Inside the SOC” blog where we dive into customer environments and show how Darktrace provides ransomware protection in customer environments.

How does Darktrace ensure business continuity during a ransomware attack?  

Darktrace does not require external connectivity or threat intelligence to detect threats, it learns from your unique business data to detect deviations from normal activity, meaning your data stays with you, in house. Additionally, Darktrace’s Autonomous Response technology is highly configurable, allowing end users to customize their response capabilities.

Will Darktrace solutions integrate with our current security setup?  

Darktrace is built with open architecture, making it easy to integrate with your existing security stack across several workflows. Whether you’re using third-party detection tools, incident response platforms, or cloud environments, Darktrace brings AI-driven insights and autonomous response directly to your data.

These integrations allow security teams to extend the reach of Darktrace’s AI, automate response actions across tools, and view threat intelligence wherever it’s needed without disrupting existing processes. The result is faster, smarter incident response across your entire ecosystem. Visit our integrations page to learn more.

How does Darktrace handle ransomware attacks in cloud environments?

Darktrace brings Self-Learning AI and advanced detection and response solutions to the cloud with Darktrace / CLOUD. Customers extending their data to the cloud benefit from multi-domain protection that detects threats wherever their data lives whether in SaaS applications, cloud infrastructure, or hybrid environments.

Darktrace is quick to deploy, often in minutes, and scales effortlessly to match the size and complexity of any organization. Darktrace / CLOUD continuously monitors activity across cloud assets, containers, APIs, and users correlated with detailed identity and network context to rapidly detect malicious activity and platform-native Autonomous Response neutralizes malicious activity with surgical accuracy while preventing disruption to cloud infrastructure or service