US becomes ransomware capital of the world as attacks rise by almost 150 percent

• Ransomware attacks are rising quickly in the US
• Hackers are focusing on data exfiltration
• Oil and gas is growing increasingly popular among threat actors

The US is now the ransomware capital of the world. The majority of the attacks are targeting US organizations, and in the last year, the number of attacks has dramatically spiked. These are the conclusions echoed in the 2025 Ransomware Report, published by cybersecurity experts Zscaler ThreatLabz.

Using proprietary data, as well as samples and information collected from the wider internet, Zscaler’s researchers determined that 50% of all ransomware attacks in the last year happened in the United States, “significantly outpacing” Canada (5%) and the UK (4%).

Even when you combine all the attacks reported across the top 15 most-targeted countries, there are fewer than 3,671 that were reported in the US.