Every year, telecommunications company Verizon publishes its Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR), a globally recognized publication of cyber incidents and data breaches. The study examines how such attacks happen, the actors behind them, and what organizations can do to stay one step ahead of these threats.
And as expected, Verizon published its latest findings this year, providing comprehensive insights into the current cybersecurity landscape. This year’s report features the largest DBIR dataset yet, analyzing more than 31,000 actual security incidents, including 22,000 confirmed data breaches involving organizations across 145 countries.
In this blog, we’ll examine the most important findings of the 2026 DBIR and what they mean for businesses like yours. We’ll also discuss how Techmedics, a trusted managed security services provider, can help you reduce exposure to cyberattacks and data breaches.
Cybercriminals have historically used credentials stolen through phishing and malware attacks to infiltrate organizations’ systems. But according to Verizon’s latest report, vulnerability exploitation is now the leading entry point for threat actors, accounting for 31% of breaches compared to just 13% involving credential abuse.
This means that attackers are taking advantage of organizations’ failure to patch their systems and applications fast enough. Unfortunately, the DBIR found that the median time to fully remediate vulnerabilities increased from 32 days to 43 days and only 26% of critical vulnerabilities were fully patched in 2025.
For many businesses, this means unpatched software is no longer just an IT maintenance issue; it is a direct business risk that can lead to downtime, data exposure, and recovery costs. However, businesses can implement several defenses to remain resilient. This can include segmenting networks, focusing on critical vulnerabilities, and leveraging intrusion prevention systems and firewalls to block exploitation attempts.
Ransomware remains one of the most dangerous threats to businesses today, causing outages and data breaches across industries worldwide. Verizon’s cybersecurity report confirms this, noting that ransomware was involved in 48% of breaches analyzed in 2026. This is a slight increase from 44% last year.
However, there are a few silver linings: 69% of victims didn’t pay the ransom demand and the median amount paid decreased to almost $140,000 compared to $150,000 in the previous year. These findings suggest that organizations are improving their ransomware defense strategies, including testing backups and incident response plans. Some businesses may also recognize that there’s no guarantee they will recover their files even after paying the ransom.
As for third-party risks, businesses are becoming more reliant on third-party companies for software and services, causing their exposure to cyber risk to increase. Verizon found that breaches involving third parties have increased by 60%.
The takeaway for business leaders is clear: ransomware readiness is not just about stopping an attack, but also ensuring the organization can recover quickly if one occurs. To protect against ransomware and third-party risks, organizations must invest in recovery readiness. They must also thoroughly vet providers and supply chain partners by reviewing their security certifications and incident response capabilities, while ensuring strict access controls are enforced.
Verizon’s latest DBIR found that human activity contributed to 62% of breaches. This typically stems from people either making mistakes (e.g., weak passwords, falling for phishing attacks) or employees or contractors intentionally stealing or leaking data.
The report also discovered that in test scenarios, 40% of people were more likely to engage with phishing attempts via mobile channels like SMS, messaging apps, or voice calls compared to email.
As such, organizations must rethink their approach to security awareness training. For example, instead of focusing solely on desktop-based email phishing scenarios, strategies must also address how to defend against mobile-based attacks. Lessons must also be tailored for each role to help employees stay engaged and reduce the likelihood of successful breaches.
The 2026 DBIR found that cybercriminals are utilizing generative AI (GenAI) tools for victim selection, malware development, social engineering attacks, and vulnerability research. This reinforces the trends observed in 2025, where threat actors used GenAI tools to create visual and audio deepfakes, write convincing phishing emails, and research targets.
Furthermore, the study highlights the growing risk of “shadow AI,” which refers to employees using GenAI tools outside approved corporate channels. Verizon’s report found that 67% of users accessing AI tools on workplace devices were using their non-corporate accounts. Employees were found to be uploading source code, technical documentation, and internal documents into personal AI accounts, creating compliance, privacy, and security concerns.
Shadow AI is now one of the most common non-malicious insider actions detected in Verizon’s 2025 data loss prevention dataset, a fourfold increase from the previous year.
Defending against shadow AI requires businesses to establish clear AI policies that define which tools employees may use and how they should be used. They must also strengthen monitoring to detect shadow AI activity before cybercriminals gain access to sensitive data.
Finally, the DBIR emphasized that excessive user privileges, weak credential management, and the lack of multifactor authentication (MFA) remain significant contributors to data breaches.
Notably, these aren’t advanced exploits but fundamental access control failures that cybercriminals are taking advantage of. In other words, some organizations are neglecting to implement the most basic security measures needed to protect their organizations. This may be due to a lack of security expertise, a false sense of security, or cost issues.
However, it’s important to remember that organizations, regardless of industry or size, must prioritize cybersecurity. Cybercriminals spare no one, and downtime can easily result in millions of dollars in losses or even a complete shutdown. Moreover, data breaches can damage an organization’s reputation and erode customer trust.
These findings point to common security gaps that many businesses struggle to manage internally. Techmedics helps organizations close those gaps through practical, ongoing cybersecurity support, including:
The DBIR shows that many breaches still stem from preventable gaps. Addressing those areas can help businesses reduce risk, improve recovery readiness, and better support cyber insurance, vendor review, and compliance requirements. If your organization is unsure where it stands, schedule a consultation with Techmedics to identify potential gaps and discuss practical next steps.
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