Group Policy hijacked: PAYLOAD ransomware weaponizes Active Directory GPO

Executive summary In April 2026, we at Kaspersky's Global Emergency Response Team GERT responded to a security incident at a manufacturing organization in the Middle East. The threat actor obtained domain admin-equivalent control of the organization's Active Directory environment and authored a...

State of ransomware in 2026

With International Anti-Ransomware Day taking place on May 12, Kaspersky presents its annual report on the evolving global and regional ransomware cyberthreat landscape. Ransomware remains one of the most persistent and adaptive cyberthreats. In 2026: New families continue to emerge, adopting...