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Monthly Intelligence Report 

November 2025: Akira Ransomware Threat

  • The Coretelligent Team


Executive Summary

The Akira ransomware group continues to pose a significant risk to organizations that handle sensitive financial or personal data. While recent campaigns have focused on finance and healthcare firms, Akira has impacted hundreds of organizations globally, targeting critical infrastructure, education, and manufacturing sectors as well.

Coretelligent analysts observed a measurable rise in Akira-aligned activity this quarter, with faster time-to-impact and broader use of credential reuse and VPN exploitation. Executives should view this trend as an indicator of resilience maturity: response readiness, data-recovery validation, and regulatory preparedness now mean the difference between disruption and continuity in the event of an attack.

Key Takeaways

  • Faster intrusions: Median dwell time has dropped below 48 hours from initial access to encryption.
  • Data leverage over ransom: Only about 25 percent of victims now pay; threat actors increasingly rely on data theft for extortion.
  • Tighter oversight: OCR and SEC regulators have issued guidance reinforcing disclosure expectations for ransomware incidents.
  • Recovery discipline: Regular backup validation remains the strongest predictor of rapid restoration and minimized financial impact.


Threat Landscape Overview

Akira at a Glance

  • Type: Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) active since 2023
  • Model: Double extortion – data exfiltration followed by system encryption – threatening public leaks if demands aren’t met
  • Scope: Targets mid-market organizations with valuable regulated or operational data
  • Recent Vectors: VPN and RDP exploitation (including SonicWall SSL VPN CVE-2024-40766), credential reuse, and phishing
  • Dwell Time: Typically under 48 hours from intrusion to business disruption

Economic and Market Impact (Q4 2025)

  • Average ransom demand: $150K–$1.2M
  • Median payment: ≈ $140K, reflecting increased resilience and legal scrutiny
  • Payment rate: ~ 23 percent of victims – lowest observed in three years
  • Typical downtime: 4 to 5 days before partial restoration
  • Regulatory exposure: Delayed disclosure may incur fines under HIPAA (≤$1.5M) or SEC cyber rules (≤$250K)

Coretelligent SOC Observations

Across monitored environments, Coretelligent analysts identified elevated scanning and login attempts consistent with Akira’s tactics. Most were contained at the authentication layer. Clients that completed a backup-restore test within the past quarter recovered operations an average of 40 percent faster than those that had not.

Benchmarking Metrics (October 2025)

MetricFinance SMBsHealthcare SMBsComposite Industry Average*
Akira incident rate (3 mo.)7%9%~10% 
Median time to detection36 hrs44 hrs~38 hrs
Median time to containment50 hrs60 hrs~58 hrs
Average operational downtime4 days5 days~5 days
Organizations backing up weekly62%58%~56%

*Composite includes finance, healthcare, manufacturing, professional services, construction, education, and retail sectors, reflecting broader Akira ransomware targeting patterns reported in October–November 2025.

Coretelligent Perspective​

These benchmarks reflect a wide industry footprint for Akira ransomware, incorporating targets beyond finance and healthcare such as manufacturing, professional services, construction, education, and retail. Our internal telemetry continues to show that environments with validated offline or immutable backups restore critical systems nearly twice as fast as those relying mainly on cloud replication.

Governance and Regulatory Ramifications

  • HIPAA / OCR: Reaffirmed that ransomware incidents involving protected health information require breach notification within 60 days.
  • SEC Cyber Disclosure: Public companies – and vendors serving them – must disclose material ransomware events within four business days.
  • Audit Readiness: Regulators increasingly expect documented evidence of preparedness, such as restoration test logs and incident-response tabletop results.


Executive Implications

Boards and executives are now expected to demonstrate ransomware governance. Legal, finance, and technology leaders should coordinate on incident-reporting readiness and disclosure language.

Recommended Executive Actions – November Focus

 Immediate (Next 30 Days)

  • Verify MFA enforcement and patch all remote-access services (CVE-2024-40766).
  • Confirm backup integrity and perform a timed restore test for mission-critical applications.
  • Conduct a tabletop exercise covering ransomware response and regulatory communication steps.

Strategic (Next Quarter)

  • Review cyber insurance for coverage of ransomware expenses and legal fees.
  • Update incident response plans to reflect SEC and HIPAA disclosure timelines.
  • Evaluate vendor access controls and third-party contract obligations for security clauses.

Shareable Checklist for Internal Teams

      [  ] Patch and harden VPN and RD gateways
      [  ] Enforce least-privilege admin rights
      [  ] Validate automated backups and monthly restore tests
      [  ] Monitor for Akira indicators (.akira, .powerranges, akira_readme.txt)
      [  ] Ensure EDR coverage and log retention across endpoints

Forecast and Watchlist

Emerging Signals (Q4 2025–Q1 2026)

  • Rising use of credential reuse from dark-web databases feeding Akira campaigns.
  • Growing interest in targeting managed file-transfer applications and edge devices.
  • Continued regulatory refinement of cyber incident reporting requirements (SEC clarifications expected January 2026).

Appendix – Technical Notes (for Security and IT Teams)

Key Indicators of Compromise

  • File extensions: .akira, .powerranges
  • Ransom notes: akira_readme.txt
  • Common tools: Mimikatz, Advanced IP Scanner, RustDesk, Ngrok
  • CVE Reference: CVE-2024-40766 (SonicWall SSL VPN)

Relevant MITRE ATT&CK Techniques

T1133 (External Remote Services) | T1003 (OS Credential Dumping) | T1486 (Encrypt Data) | T1490 (Inhibit System Recovery)

Contact and Next Steps

Schedule Your Akira Risk Briefing

Connect with your Coretelligent Account Lead to review your remote-access controls, backup resilience, and incident-response readiness.

Coretelligent Cyber Intelligence Team

Email: info@coretelligent.com

Phone: 1-855-841-5888

Coretelligent provides cyber resilience intelligence and managed support solutions across security, governance, and compliance.

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