How is ransomware delivered?

Common delivery mechanisms include phishing and spear-phishing emails, malicious macros in documents, drive-by downloads from compromised websites, exploit kits, malicious advertising, and direct deployment by attackers who already have access through stolen credentials or exposed RDP.

Increasingly, ransomware is delivered hands-on-keyboard by human operators rather than as an automated payload, which makes it stealthier. Elastio assumes some deliveries will succeed and concentrates on detecting the resulting damage inside the data so you can recover cleanly.

Last updated May 27, 2026