The Gentlemen, Deadlock, and Clop: The Groups Driving Ransomware & Extortion in 2026

An affiliate receives a ready-made intrusion kit — pre-compromised targets, an EDR killer, and a full deployment workflow included. No building from scratch. No long ramp-up. Just deploy, observe, and iterate. That's the future of ransomware; it's how the new number-one group operated in Q2 2026. And it's just one of three stories reshaping the extortion landscape right now.Join hosts Brandon Tirado and John Dilgen as they break down:How The Gentlemen's pre-packaged affiliate kit drove 580% leak-site growthWhy Deadlock's Polygon blockchain C2 defeats network defensesClop's latest campaign targeting an industrial enterprise application Two questions your organization should be asking right now:Do you know exactly where your EDR coverage ends?If a critical vendor were compromised tonight, would you hear it from them first — or from your own monitoring?John Dilgen: Cyber Threat Intelligence Analyst at ReliaQuest, where he specializes in researching cyber threats impacting ReliaQuest customers. With a strong technical background, he previously served as an Incident Response Analyst and Trainer at ReliaQuest.Brandon Tirado: Director of GreyMatter Operations for ReliaQuest. A skilled cyber defense professional with a unique combination of management and hands-on experience. With a deep understanding of adversary motives and the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) they use to achieve their goals, Brandon enjoys operationalizing his knowledge to make it more difficult for adversaries to operate within the environments of ReliaQuest customers. His managerial and hands-on experience enriches ShadowTalk with practical and strategic viewpoints.