Extortion Evolves: Akamai SOTI report examines the increasing complexity of ransomware attacks and the impact on Asia pacific organisations

Akamai Technologies has found that bad actors are using a new quadruple extortion tactic in ransomware campaigns, while double extortion remains the most common approach. With ransomware accounting for more than half of the total data breaches in this region in 2024, Asia Pacific (APAC) enterprises must scrutinise and strengthen their cyber defenses to minimise vulnerabilities and ensure business resilience.

According to the new Akamai State of the Internet (SOTI) report, Ransomware Report 2025: Building Resilience Amid a Volatile Threat Landscape, the emerging trend of quadruple extortion includes DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks and pressuring third parties like customers, partners, or media to increase the pressure on the victim. That builds on double extortion ransomware in which attackers simply encrypt a victim’s data and threaten to leak it publicly if the ransom is not paid. 

“Ransomware threats today are not just about encryption anymore,” said ...