Most ransomware playbooks don't address machine credentials. Attackers know it.

The gap between ransomware threats and the defenses meant to stop them is widening, according to Ivanti’s 2026 State of Cybersecurity Report. The report found that the preparedness gap increased by an average of 10 points year over year across every threat category tracked by the firm. Ransomware emerged as the most significant threat, with 63% of security professionals rating it as a high or critical threat. However, only 30% claimed to be “very prepared” to defend against it. This 33-point gap represents a significant increase from the previous year.

CyberArk’s 2025 Identity Security Landscape revealed that there are 82 machine identities for every human in organizations worldwide, with 42% of those machine identities having privileged or sensitive access.

The most authoritative playbook framework for ransomware preparation, as outlined by Gartner in the April 2024 research note “How to Prepare for Ransomware Attacks,” focuses on resetting “impacted user/host credentials” during containment. However, this framework fails to address the issue of compromised service accounts, API keys, tokens, and certificates. This blind spot leaves organizations vulnerable to attacks without realizing it.

Gartner emphasizes the importance of addressing compromised credentials in the recovery phase of ransomware incidents, stating that failure to update or remove compromised credentials can allow attackers to regain entry. Machine identities, such as service accounts, are a crucial aspect of IAM, but they are often overlooked in traditional containment procedures.

Ivanti’s report highlights a widening preparedness gap across all major threat categories, including ransomware, phishing, software vulnerabilities, API-related vulnerabilities, and supply chain attacks. The report’s findings point to a persistent imbalance in organizations’ ability to defend against evolving threats, which Ivanti’s Chief Security Officer, Daniel Spicer, refers to as the “Cybersecurity Readiness Deficit.”

CrowdStrike’s 2025 State of Ransomware Survey delves into the impact of this deficit across industries. The survey reveals that many organizations struggle to recover quickly from ransomware attacks, leading to significant operational disruptions. Despite FBI guidance against ransom payment, 54% of organizations surveyed expressed a willingness to pay if hit by ransomware, underscoring the lack of viable containment alternatives.

Machine identity playbooks often fall short in addressing the unique challenges posed by machine identities in ransomware incidents. Containment procedures typically overlook machine identities, leading to gaps in security measures.

Five key areas where machine identity playbooks fall short include the lack of machine-specific credential reset procedures, inadequate machine identity inventorying, failure to revoke trust chains during network isolation, insufficient detection logic for machine behavior, and neglecting to address stale service accounts as entry points for attacks.

The urgency to address these issues is heightened by the rise of agentic AI, which will introduce a new wave of machine identities into organizations. Security leaders must prioritize building machine identity inventory, detection rules, and containment procedures into their playbooks to close the gap that attackers exploit and prepare for the autonomous identities of the future.

The economic implications of ransomware incidents underscore the importance of proactive measures. Recovery costs can be up to 10 times the ransom amount, with organizations facing significant downtime and data loss even after paying the ransom. Security leaders who invest in machine identity governance now will not only mitigate current threats but also be better equipped to handle the challenges posed by autonomous AI in the future.