INC Ransomware Emerges as Major RaaS Threat in 2026 with 830+ Victims Since 2023

Cybersecurity researchers have charted the evolution of INC from a nascent ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation to one of the most prolific cybercrime groups in 2026, claiming no less than 830 victims since August 2023.

“The disruption of LockBit and the shutdown of BlackCat created opportunities for INC to expand as affiliates migrated to alternative ransomware operations,” Acronis researcher Darrel Virtusio said. “United States organizations account for more than 65% of listed victims, with legal services, manufacturing, construction, technology and health care among the most targeted sectors.”

INC’s Windows and Linux/ESXi encryptors have also been rewritten in Rust to facilitate easier cross-platform development and better resist reverse engineering efforts. Attacks deploying the ransomware are characterized by the use of an updated credential dumper capable of targeting newer Veeam backup deployments that use the salted DPAPI credential encryption.

What’s more, the sale of INC’s Windows and Linux variants on the cybercrime underground in May 2024 has led to the emergence of related ransomware families such as Lynx and Sinobi with “significant code overlap,” even as the brand has continued to evolve.

“INC ransomware affiliates utilize a diverse range of tools and techniques in targeting victims,” Acronis said. “In their latest campaigns, they continue to target unpatched edge devices for initial access, dump credentials from Veeam backup servers, and use a mix of LOLBins and commercial RMM tools to move through victim networks.”

The overall attack chain adopted by the double extortion crew includes obtaining initial access via spear-phishing, account credentials purchased from IABs, and exploitation of vulnerabilities in public-facing applications such as Citrix Netscaler (CVE-2023-3519 and CVE-2025-5777), Fortinet EMS (CVE-2023-48788), and SimpleHelp (CVE-2024-57727). They extract sensitive credentials, use LOLBins like RDP and PsExec for lateral movement, employ the BYOVD technique using filwfp.sys, filnk.sys, fildds.sys to impair defenses, drop Cobalt Strike, AnyDesk, ScreenConnect, and TeamViewer for C2, exfiltrate data using Rclone, and run the encryptor with multithreading and partial encryption.

Data compiled by ZeroFox shows that INC ransomware emerged as the fourth most prominent ransomware group in Q1 2026 after Qilin (338), Akira (197), and The Gentlemen (192), accounting for over 120 incidents during the time period.