New Verizon Report Reveals the Security Gap Attackers Are Exploiting Most

The 2026 Verizon DBIR highlights a shift in the threat landscape: vulnerability exploitation is now the top initial access vector (31%), AI and GenAI are accelerating reconnaissance, phishing, and malware development, third-party breaches rose to 48%, and ransomware remains widespread (present in 48% of breaches and disproportionately impacting SMBs). The report stresses the growing remediation gap, the rise of shadow AI and insider risk, increased DDoS scale, and the continued importance of fundamentals like MFA, patching, asset visibility, and incident response.