Defending Against Ransomware: What is HITRUST Ransomware Insights Report

Ransomware has evolved from an opportunistic cybercrime into one of the most persistent and damaging threats facing organizations today. According to a recent report, the number of ransomware victims increased by 53%-63% over the past two years. As attacks grow in scale, sophistication, and impact, organizations need more than isolated controls or point-in-time assessments. They need defensible, measurable ransomware resilience.

To address this challenge, HITRUST has expanded its Insights Reports portfolio with a dedicated Ransomware Insights Report, aligning HITRUST assessment results to the NIST Cybersecurity Framework v2.0 and the NIST Ransomware Community Profile. This report delivers actionable insight into ransomware readiness using a trusted, validated assurance model.

What are HITRUST Insights Reports?

HITRUST Insights Reports transform existing HITRUST assessment results into mapped, audit-ready reports aligned with leading frameworks and regulatory expectations. Rather than treating compliance and risk reporting as duplicative efforts, Insights Reports allow organizations to extend the value of a single HITRUST assessment across multiple use cases.

These are reporting outcomes of the HITRUST assurance program, designed to help organizations communicate trust, maturity, and alignment more effectively.

Why focus on ransomware resilience now?

Ransomware continues to dominate the global threat landscape, cutting across industries and organizational sizes.

• According to Verizon’s 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report, ransomware was present in 44% of all analyzed data breaches, highlighting how frequently attackers rely on ransomware as a primary attack method.
• Small and mid-sized organizations (SMBs) were disproportionately impacted, with ransomware involved in 88% of breaches affecting SMBs.

The continued prevalence of ransomware across nearly half of all breaches demonstrates that it is no longer a niche or episodic threat, but a core attack technique used by threat actors across industries.

These figures underscore a critical reality: ransomware is not only increasing in frequency, but it is increasingly targeting organizations with fewer resources and lower tolerance for operational disruption, making ransomware resilience and preparedness essential components of modern cybersecurity and risk management programs.

What is the HITRUST Ransomware Insights Report?

The HITRUST Ransomware Insights Report maps validated HITRUST CSF assessment results to the subset of NIST Cybersecurity Framework v2.0 core subcategories prioritized in the Ransomware Community Profile, which outlines cybersecurity outcomes specifically designed to reduce the likelihood and impact of ransomware attacks.

The report provides

• Mapped control alignment between HITRUST CSF requirements and NIST ransomware-related subcategories
• Control maturity evaluations, offering insight into the organization’s ability to counter ransomware threats and deal with the potential consequences of events
• Certified, audit-ready reporting, validated through HITRUST’s quality and assurance processes

This enables organizations to view ransomware resilience through a NIST-aligned lens, without conducting separate assessments or duplicative analyses.

How does HITRUST align with the NIST Ransomware Community Profile?

The NIST Cybersecurity Framework complements existing risk management and cybersecurity programs by providing a consistent structure for identifying, managing, and communicating cybersecurity risk. The Ransomware Community Profile, detailed in NIST IR 8374, builds on this foundation by emphasizing ransomware-specific resilience outcomes.

HITRUST maps its CSF requirements to NIST CSF v2.0 using the NIST OLIR methodology, ensuring traceability, consistency, and rigor. These mappings undergo a multi-stage internal review process, including automated checks, peer review, management review, and quality assurance validation.

The result is a defensible, transparent mapping that organizations can confidently use to demonstrate ransomware readiness to internal and external stakeholders.

What insights does the report deliver?

The Ransomware Insights Report delivers structured, outcome-driven insight into how well an organization is positioned to prevent, withstand, and recover from ransomware events.

At the core of the report is a ransomware scorecard that presents control maturity across prioritized NIST CSF domains, including Govern, Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover. These maturity scores reflect the results of independent validation performed during a validated assessment and show how effectively ransomware-related security objectives are implemented and operating in practice.

For example, with the Govern function, the report highlights foundational capabilities that directly influence ransomware resilience, such as

• Organizational context and risk awareness, which ensure ransomware preparedness is aligned to mission-critical services, stakeholder expectations, and regulatory obligations
• Defined roles, responsibilities, and authorities, enabling coordinated and timely action during ransomware incidents
• Risk management integration, ensuring ransomware risk is embedded into enterprise risk management and decision-making processes

The report enables organizations to quickly identify strengths, gaps, and areas for improvement. If control maturity falls below fully compliant, the report provides clear, relevant observations and corrective action considerations, supporting transparent risk discussions and remediation planning.

Ultimately, the insights delivered move beyond checkbox compliance. They provide leadership, risk owners, and security teams with a defensible view of ransomware readiness that can be used to communicate posture, prioritize investments, and demonstrate alignment with recognized ransomware resilience standards.

How can organizations use the Ransomware Insights Report?

Organizations can apply the report across multiple use cases, including

• Board and executive reporting to clearly communicate ransomware readiness
• Third-party and vendor risk management, especially where ransomware exposure is a top concern
• Regulatory and audit support, leveraging NIST-aligned evidence
• Security program improvement, identifying gaps and prioritizing ransomware-related remediation

For organizations already using HITRUST, the report provides a new way to operationalize existing assessment results without added assessment burden.

Conclusion

Ransomware is no longer an isolated risk. It is a defining cybersecurity challenge. Organizations must be able to measure, demonstrate, and improve resilience. The HITRUST Ransomware Insights Report delivers a practical, trusted mechanism to translate complex control environments into meaningful, ransomware-focused insight.

In a landscape where ransomware attacks are increasingly inevitable, measured resilience is what separates disruption from recovery.