The cybersecurity landscape in India facing unprecedented challenges as the penetration of digital services across the country continues to increase. Amidst this, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, and Delhi have emerged as the leading malware hotspots.
The India Cyber Threat Report 2026, recently released by Seqrite, the enterprise arm of Quick Heal Technologies Limited, a global provider of cybersecurity solutions, reveals that these three states account for a significant portion of India’s 265.52 million malware detections. In response to these emerging threats, Quick Heal Technologies Limited remains committed to safeguarding citizens, businesses, and institutions from cyber fraud in an increasingly digital-first economy.
The report, prepared meticulously by researchers at Seqrite Labs, India’s largest malware analysis facility, stands as a key analysis of India’s cyber threat landscape from October 2024 to September 2025. Seqrite researchers assessed over more than 8 million endpoints, making an average of 505 detections every minute. Maharashtra alone registered 36.13 million detections, representing 24.31% of the national threat volume, followed by Delhi NCR with 15.41 million detections.
At the city level, Mumbai emerged as the most targeted city with 16.59 million detections, followed by New Delhi with 15.32 million. The primary factor leading to the high number of detections in these cities is the concentration of financial, political, and industrial activity in these areas. Recognizing this, Quick Heal continues to strengthen its role as the nation’s cybersecurity backbone. In complete alignment with its motto “Digital Bharat ka Bharosa, Fraud se Suraksha”, the company is ensuring that every citizen, enterprise, and institution can confidently embrace technology without fear of cyber threats.
The India Cyber Threat Report 2026 identifies a clear shift in India’s threat ecosystem from reactive, episodic attacks to continuous, automation-driven patterns. Seqrite researchers reveal that threat actors are no longer waiting for vulnerabilities to emerge; they are constantly scanning, exploiting, and monetizing digital weaknesses.
At the operational level, Trojans (43%) and File Infectors (35%) together accounted for nearly 70% of all malware detections, reflecting adversaries’ sustained success through social engineering, cracked software, and legacy vulnerabilities. These findings highlight the relentless pace and sophistication of cyber threats targeting Indian enterprises, driven by a complex blend of legacy malware, fileless intrusions, AI-assisted phishing, and ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operations that show no signs of abatement.
Looking ahead to 2026 and beyond, Seqrite forecasts an era of cognitive intrusions where adversaries leverage artificial intelligence to automate reconnaissance, deception, and persistence. The threat battlefield is likely to evolve from code-based to context-aware attacks, demanding defenses that are predictive, autonomous, and intelligence-led.
Seqrite recommends that organizations prioritize predictive intelligence, accelerate patch orchestration, reinforce identity as the new perimeter, harden the AI layer, advance autonomous detection and response, build resilience frameworks, strengthen ecosystem collaboration, and secure the human element against the emerging wave of cognitive threats.
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