Ransomware activity across Turkey didn’t slow down in the second half of 2025 it matured.
Between July and December, ThreatMon analysts confirmed ransomware impacts across 17 organizations, attributed to six different threat groups. Rather than isolated incidents, these attacks reflected an active and diversified ecosystem of financially motivated actors operating in parallel
What stood out wasn’t just the volume. It was the consistency. Different groups. Similar playbooks. Same outcome: operational disruption, stolen data, and sustained pressure on victims.
Manufacturing emerged as the most targeted sector, followed by Construction and Healthcare.
This aligns with what we see operationally. These environments tend to combine legacy systems, operational technology, and complex supply chains. When something breaks, it breaks loudly production stops, contracts are delayed, and financial losses escalate quickly.
Healthcare adds another layer of risk. Beyond downtime, there’s exposure of highly sensitive patient data and regulatory consequences. Construction firms, meanwhile, hold valuable intellectual property: project designs, engineering documentation, and client contracts.
From an attacker’s perspective, these sectors offer high leverage with relatively predictable outcomes.
They don’t need chaos everywhere just disruption in the right places.
Nearly every campaign observed during H2 2025 followed the same pattern: data first, encryption second.
Groups such as LockBit5, Qilin, Direwolf, and Incransom consistently used double extortion tactics. Sensitive information was extracted early, long before victims realized they had been compromised.
This changes how incidents unfold.
Even if systems are restored from backup, organizations still face exposure through stolen data — whether that means regulatory scrutiny, reputational damage, or leaked information appearing on underground forums weeks later.
Ransomware today isn’t just about availability. It’s about control.
One of the more revealing findings was how uneven detection timelines were.
Some organizations identified attacks within minutes. Others gave attackers days inside their networks.
Extended dwell time allows threat actors to escalate privileges, move laterally, disable security controls, and selectively exfiltrate high-value data. By the time ransomware is deployed, much of the real damage has already been done.
Early detection remains one of the strongest variables in reducing impact and one of the hardest to achieve without proper visibility.
Turkey’s ransomware landscape in H2 2025 wasn’t shaped by one dominant actor. Multiple groups operated simultaneously, each bringing different tooling, access methods, and operational styles.This fragmentation increases defensive complexity.
Organizations can’t prepare for “a ransomware attack” anymore. They need to defend against phishing-led intrusions, exposed services, credential abuse, and lateral movement all at once.
If the second half of 2025 taught us anything, it’s that ransomware has become a persistent enterprise risk, not an occasional disruption.
Organizations especially those in Manufacturing, Construction, and Healthcare should treat this as a baseline reality and focus on fundamentals that consistently reduce impact:
Just as importantly, external threat intelligence has become critical. Without visibility into active ransomware groups, victim trends, and evolving tactics, many organizations only realize they’re targeted when operations are already affected.
H2 2025 showed that ransomware actors are adapting quickly.
The real question for 2026 isn’t whether attacks will continue. It’s whether organizations can detect, contain, and recover before attackers gain irreversible leverage.
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