India leads global malware attack list as AI-driven ransomware escalates: Acronis report

India has emerged as the most-targeted country globally for malware attacks. According to the latest biannual report by cybersecurity firm Acronis, the rise in AI-powered ransomware and phishing threats in India accounts to 12.4% of all monitored endpoint attacks worldwide. The Acronis Threat Research Unit (TRU) discovered that artificial intelligence is being weaponised by cybercriminals to automate and scale attacks.

AI fuels sophisticated cyber threats
As per the report, ransomware is the main top threat for large and mid-sized businesses. On the other hand, phishing incidents also witnessed a surge especially on collaboration platforms like Microsoft Teams and Slack, where attacks jumped from 9% to 30.5% in the first half of 2025.

“AI is empowering threat actors to operate at scale and with higher precision,” said Rajesh Chhabra, General Manager for India and South Asia at Acronis. He stressed on the need for Indian enterprises to adopt AI-aware cybersecurity frameworks and shift from reactive to behaviour-based security models.

Email and collaboration tools under fire
The report also revealed a sharp increase in advanced email threats which includes spoofed and payload-less attacks which increased from 9% to 24.5%. These tactics are created to bypass traditional filters and exploit human error. This rise in cyberattacks also makes the need for employee education and adaptive security systems more critical than ever.

A call for proactive defense
The cybersecurity firm Acronis recommends the need for a multi-layered defense strategy which also includes a behaviour-based threat detection. The firm also suggests regular audits of third-party apps and a robust cloud and email security protocols . The firm also emphasised on the importance of ongoing training to combat social engineering and phishing techniques, which remain a major vulnerability across Indian enterprises.