Why Managers Are Ransomware's Top Targets Now - and 6 Ways to Stay Safe
TechTarget, Tuesday, August 19th, 2025
Almost two-thirds of victims in one ransomware campaign held managerial positions or higher.
Zscaler's ThreatLabz analyzed the early stage of a real ransomware campaign and found 351 victims across 334 organizations over one month, with 62% holding manager-level titles or higher.
Around three-quarters worked in accounting and finance, sales, operations, HR, or marketing, and half the organizations were in industrial or IT sectors.
Managers are targeted because they hold higher network and business privileges and handle payments, budgets, and contracts, so a compromised account reaches many business units.
ThreatLabz recommends limiting external collaboration-tool contact, training staff to spot IT impersonation, deploying AI-powered detection, watching for signs of compromise, adopting least-privilege access, and segmenting under zero trust.