Welcome to the sixth edition of the annual Sophos State of Ransomware in Retail report, which reveals the reality of ransomware for retail organizations in 2026.
This year’s report shines new light on previously unexplored areas, including where attacks start in the environment, the defensive role of multi-factor authentication (MFA) and firewalls, and the connection between identity attacks and ransomware.
Drawing on the real-world experiences of 217 IT and cybersecurity leaders in retail organizations hit by ransomware in the past year, this report offers unique insights into:
- Attack and defense methods
- Data encryption and recovery
- Ransom demands and payments
- Business and human impact
Note: The 217 retail sector respondents are part of a broader cohort of 2,158 respondents across 15 industry sectors.
Throughout this report, “cross-sector average” refers to combined answers from respondents across all sectors surveyed. Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number after summary combinations.
