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Ransomware trends targeting storage systems in 2026
Going into 2026, organizations are likely to face increased cybersecurity threats to storage systems, especially concerning DDoS and ransomware attacks. Learn how to properly defend against these threats.
As IT professionals enter 2026, cybersecurity threats will no doubt be among the top three issues that keep them up at night. Storage managers and their teams will have their hands full keeping abreast of the latest threat actors and how to protect their systems and data from becoming victims of cyberattacks.
This article focuses on storage technologies and strategies to protect them from unauthorized access and cyberattacks, particularly distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) and ransomware attacks.
Risks, threats and vulnerabilities in storage systems
Considering the importance of storage systems in enterprises of all sizes, they are likely to be primary targets for all kinds of security risks and threats. Storage teams will need to be as proactive as possible to identify and fix vulnerabilities before they can be exploited.
Attacks can come from many directions, including data exfiltration attacks, data theft, encryption and destruction attacks, storage firmware weaknesses, bypassing multifactor authentication (MFA) resources, ransomware and even insider threats.
Additional risk areas include storage system misconfigurations, ineffective authentication and encryption, poor monitoring as well as unpatched or improperly patched system software and firmware. A lack of testing for storage system security measures might also cause serious vulnerabilities.
Ransomware trends impacting storage systems
Ransomware attacks using AI are among the biggest concerns in 2026, considering how AI-based attackers will seek out storage vulnerabilities and deliver automated attacks addressing intrusions, data theft, encryption and DDoS actions.
The development of ransomware-as-a-service means that delivering ransomware attacks will be easier than ever, and storage teams must therefore increase their diligence.
The growing expertise of ransomware attackers is expected to disrupt the backup and recovery capabilities of storage resources by encrypting and deleting backups and data snapshots. This means storage teams will need to deploy immutable storage and backups using air gapping techniques.
Despite ongoing efforts by law enforcement to shut down ransomware activities, new players are likely to emerge during 2026, committing actions like stealing API keys, storage tokens and cookies.
Storage security trends in 2026
Key trends where storage security will be impacted include the growing use of zero-trust security measures, protection against ransomware attacks, increased use of AI technology and audit logs that can be assessed and verified.
Use of zero trust means that access must be continuously verified to prevent unauthorized access, while perimeter defenses will need to be strengthened. Zero trust is destined to be deployed during authentication and at every other level of storage activity.
The continued presence of ransomware attacks means that storage systems must be equipped with resources like unchangeable storage snapshots, backups using air gapping technology as well as rapid and automated recovery capabilities.
Storage industry vendors will increasingly deploy AI to automate all aspects of the storage process. This includes ensuring compliance with relevant standards and regulations, providing better threat detection and response using predictive analytics while also automating self-recovery and device healing to minimize downtime.
Enhancement of storage audit trails will improve verification using techniques such as encryption to ensure compliance and prevent insider attacks.
Greater use of edge storage tools will ensure data sovereignty requirements are addressed, and that localized threats can be quickly detected and mitigated.
Software-defined storage (SDS) advancements will help consolidate traditional storage models such as file, block and object storage across a single platform, helping improve the organization's overall security posture.
Strategies to defend against ransomware and other threats in 2026
As noted earlier, several important defense strategies must be considered as part of storage technology management in 2026.
- Use of zero-trust security methods and technologies. This means that all aspects of storage access must be challenged and authenticated.
- Prevention of unauthorized access. This can be done using strong authentication (e.g., MFA), encryption, role-based authentication or the use of AI-based security software.
- Air gapping and audit logs. The use of air gapping will help protect backups, and the use of encryption will help protect audit logs from tampering.
- Scheduled patching. Software and firmware patching is one of the most important ways to prevent unauthorized access and cyberattacks to storage systems.
- Storage disaster recovery (DR) and resilience plans. To help ensure that storage systems can be quickly recovered from ransomware and other cyberattacks, ensure that DR plans are in place and periodically tested; this is also true of cybersecurity software products.
- Integrate storage security with enterprise security. If an organization already has enterprise-level cybersecurity platforms in place that provide Security Incident and Event Management (SIEM) and Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR) features, then these security measures should also be integrated into storage security platforms. This will provide access to and visibility across all layers of storage systems.
Summary
The storage technology industry faces many challenges in 2026. To ensure their storage infrastructures are secure and resilient, storage teams must focus on deploying zero trust strategies, improving resilience from ransomware and other cyberattacks, using regulatory-compliant systems and AI tools, improving auditability and delivering greater diligence.
Paul Kirvan, FBCI, CISA, is an independent consultant and technical writer with more than 35 years of experience in business continuity, disaster recovery, resilience, cybersecurity, GRC, telecom and technical writing.
