Akira, ShinyHunters, and The Gentlemen: Extortion Lessons From Early 2026

About this episode

The episode discusses the success factors of top ransomware and extortion groups in early 2026 and how organizations can defend against them.

What factors have driven the top ransomware and extortion groups' success in early 2026? And how should organizations structure their defenses to protect against them? Join hosts Alexandra and John as they discuss: How Akira is exploiting unknown assets inherited through M&AWhy ShinyHunters' vishing and SaaS misconfiguration models workHow The Gentlemen grew 588% quarter-over-quarter Two questions your organization should be asking right now: Have you run a full asset discovery sweep...

People in this episode

Hosts: Alexandra, John

Topics covered

• ransomware
• extortion
• cybersecurity
• defense strategies
• asset discovery
• M&A risks

Keywords

• ransomware
• extortion
• Akira
• ShinyHunters
• The Gentlemen
• cybersecurity
• defense
• asset discovery
• M&A

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Akira, ShinyHunters, The Gentlemen

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