69% of Ransomware Victims Refused to Pay Last Year — the Highest Rate Ever Recorded. Here's What Changed.
Good News What's Working August 2026 · 7 min read Most of what this series covers is a warning. This one isn't. New research shows that more businesses said no to ransomware demands last year than at any point on record — and the reason isn't luck. It's preparation, catching up. Here's the record-breaking number, and a look back at every quiet win this series has documented this year that never made a scary headline. Ransomware coverage tends to follow one shape: the number of attacks goes up, the story gets written, everyone feels a little worse about the internet. That shape is accurate as far as it goes — attacks are up. But it leaves out the half of the story where businesses are winning, quietly, in ways that don't make headlines because nothing dramatic happened. This post is about that half. Verizon's newest global breach research, drawing on real incident data from the past year, found ...