One in two victims of ransomware attacks almost always hands over money to their attackers, only to be hit again with a second demand.

AI is making extortion campaigns more effective. Proofpoint's 2026 AI-Era Ransomware Report, based on a survey of 953 cybersecurity professionals across 12 countries, found that half of affected Singapore organisations paid despite longstanding guidance from law enforcement against doing so. 75% of Singapore organisations confirm that data was stolen during ransomware attacks. "AI hasn't fundamentally changed ransomware, but it has materially improved the attacks that lead to ransomware," said Ryan Kalember, chief strategy officer at Proofpoint. "Organisations that continue treating ransomware and data extortion as endpoint or recovery problems are missing what these attacks most frequently begin with: people, identities and trusted communications."