Microsoft: more ransomware stopped before reaching encryption

From Microsoft recent released Microsoft Digital Defense Report (MDDR), ransomware remains one of the most serious cybersecurity concerns, and among it customers, Microsoft observed a 2.75x increase year over year in human-operated ransomware-linked encounters (defined as having at least one device targeted for a ransomware attack in a network)

However, the percentage of attacks reaching actual encryption phase has decreased over the past two years by threefold.

The report attributes this positive downward trend to automatic attack detection and disruption, suggests that defenses are getting much better at stopping criminals during crucial stages of their operations.

Social engineering techniques are still highly effective and given the human element on which they rely, technology alone can't mitigate them entirely.