Acronis Threat Research Unit

Qilin, also known as Agenda, is a Russian-speaking ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation that first appeared in 2022.

The Gentlemen uses a double-extortion model. In addition to encrypting files, the ransomware can exfiltrate data from compromised systems. This puts additional pressure on victims to pay the ransom to restore access to their files and prevent the stolen data from being publicly leaked.

See how users are turning to the AI assistant in Acronis Cyber Platform to get answers and complete tasks using plain-language prompts.

The Acronis Cyberthreats Update covers current cyberthreat activity and trends, as observed by Acronis Threat Research Unit (TRU) and Acronis sensors. Figures presented here were gathered in September 2026 and reflect threats that Acronis detected, as well as news stories from the industry. This report represents a global outlook and is based on more than one million unique endpoints distributed around the world.

An AI tool that produces only text carries roughly the risk of a badly worded email. A tool that can reach into systems and change things carries the risk of whatever those systems hold. The security question is not how clever the model is. It is which systems and data the model is authorized to access.

The Acronis Cyberthreats Update covers current cyberthreat activity and trends, as observed by Acronis Threat Research Unit (TRU) and Acronis sensors. Figures presented here were gathered in August 2026 and reflect threats that Acronis detected, as well as news stories from the industry. This report represents a global outlook and is based on more than one million unique endpoints distributed around the world.

The Acronis Cyberthreats Update covers current cyberthreat activity and trends, as observed by Acronis Threat Research Unit (TRU) and Acronis sensors. Figures presented here were gathered in July 2026 and reflect threats that Acronis detected, as well as news stories from the public domain. This report represents a global outlook and is based on more than one million unique endpoints distributed around the world.

Patch prioritization in SMB environments often starts with software vendor severity. Critical patches go first, then high-severity patches, then everything else. Severity answers only one question: How risky is it to leave a vulnerability unresolved? It says nothing about how hard the fix is to deploy, how often it causes issues or how much testing it needs.

Acronis Threat Research Unit (TRU) has identified an ongoing campaign delivering a previously undocumented custom backdoor against Afghan telecom providers and South Asian critical infrastructure organizations. The backdoor, tracked as PATCHCORD, is a compiled C/C++ implant delivered through sector-specific lures, including fake VPN installers impersonating Afghan Telecom (AFTEL) and telecom management tools.

The business value of better agent health assurance is straightforward. MSPs spend less time on repetitive checks and manual service recovery. Technicians can focus on issues that require judgment instead of routine restarts. Service managers can see which customers or services have repeated problems. Customers receive more stable protection and management coverage.

Every script you run on a customer endpoint is operational software with administrator privileges. It deserves the same lifecycle discipline you would apply to any other production code — review, attribution, versioning and retirement. Whether a script was written by a senior engineer last Tuesday, cloned from a vendor template or generated by AI, the standards expectation is identical.

Acronis Threat Research Unit (TRU) has identified an active Lampion malware campaign targeting Portuguese users through phishing emails masquerading as financial and administrative communications.