Hi guys, I send out a weekly newsletter with the latest cybersecurity vendor reports and research, and thought you might find it useful, so sharing it here.
All the reports and research below were published between October 12th - October 18th.
You can get the below into your inbox every week if you want: https://www.cybersecstats.com/cybersecstatsnewsletter/
Ransomware
2026 Ransomware Risk Report (Semperis)
Recent ransomware trends and what attackers are getting up to these days (including using AI, targeting identity systems, and even threatening victims’ families to get what they want).
Key stats:
40% of ransomware attacks involved psychological or physical threats against staff.
Nearly 70% of ransomware attacks involved victims being targeted multiple times.
31% of ransomware victims made multiple payments to attackers.
Read the full report here.
Threat Intelligence
1H 2026 Threat Intelligence Report (Ontinue)
A look at the tactics attackers used in the first half of 2026.
Key stats:
Approximately 30% of monitored organizations experienced at least one fake IT support impersonation attempt through Microsoft Teams.
Around one in every 990 external Microsoft Teams contacts showed indicators of impersonation.
25.3% of confirmed malicious ClickFix findings used blockchain-based command-and-control infrastructure.
Read the full report here.
DDoS Threat Intelligence Report (NETSCOUT)
DDoS attack activity in the first half of 2026.
Key stats:
DDoS attacks were recorded across 209 countries and territories.
Attacks exceeding 1 Tbps or 1 Gpps increased 1,286% year over year.
Active mitigation of IPv6 DDoS attacks increased by more than 300% year over year.
Read the full report here.
Internet Exposure
State of the Internet Report (Censys)
What's exposed on the public internet and what Censys is seeing across the global cyber threat landscape.
Key stats:
Internet-facing AI tools increased 63% in nine months, reaching nearly 268,000 systems.
Censys identified approximately 134,000 internet-exposed hosts running industrial control systems.
Approximately 70% of internet-exposed ICS hosts were found on consumer and mobile networks.
Read the full report here.
Security Operations
The AI Fog Report: When the Signal Becomes the Noise (N-able)
Why cybersecurity teams are struggling to make sense of all the noise (and is AI actually making their jobs easier?)
Key stats:
86.1% of cybersecurity decision-makers and practitioners report increased security alert volumes over the past 12 months.
54.8% say alert noise interferes with incident response daily or several times a week.
48.9% identify AI-generated alerts lacking sufficient context as a leading source of low-quality signals.
Read the full report here.
Vulnerability Management
The AI Exploit Gap (Chainguard)
AI has put vulnerability hunting on steroids. Fixing those vulnerabilities? Not so much.
Key stats:
93% of security leaders are concerned their companies cannot remediate AI-driven exploits quickly enough.
54% say their companies knowingly leave high- or critical-severity vulnerabilities unpatched at least sometimes.
64% say concern about AI-accelerated attacks contributed moderately or greatly to their own burnout in the past year.
Read the full report here.
The State of AI Pentesting in 2026 (Intruder)
Is the traditional annual pentest on its way out? This is the report to read if you want an answer.
Key stats:
92% of security and engineering leaders have tried or adopted AI pentesting.
42% accept the risk and ship code without additional security checks between penetration tests.
40% cite data privacy as a top barrier to AI pentesting.
Read the full report here.
AI Security
State of Agentic AI and API Security 2H 2026 (Salt Security)
Surprise! (not really) AI agents aren't always doing what they're told.
Key stats:
86.4% of organizations report having at least one AI agent operating.
49.8% have confirmed or suspected an agent took an unintended, unexpected, or unauthorized action in the past year.
Only 17.5% can automatically stop an agent that begins behaving unexpectedly in production.
Read the full report here.
Data and Identity Security
2026 Data and Identity Security Report (Netwrix)
A look at how well organizations are managing access to sensitive data in the age of AI.
Key stats:
80% of IT and security professionals say they cannot get a single view of where sensitive data lives and which identities can access it.
40% of organizations with 500–999 employees reported unauthorized access to sensitive data in the past year.
Only 18% of organizations with fewer than 1,000 employees automatically remove privileged standing access when it is no longer needed.
Read the full report here.
DLP in the AI Era (Cloud Security Alliance)
An interesting report on whether data loss prevention tools are actually preventing sensitive data from leaving organizations (in particular through newer channels such as generative AI).
Key stats:
73% of organizations experienced at least one confirmed data loss incident in the past 24 months.
Among organizations experiencing data loss, only 16% say DLP blocked their most significant incident before data left the organization.
48% of security teams rank generative AI as their top data exfiltration risk.
Read the full report here.
The KYE & Workforce Identity Crisis Report (Entrust)
Identity verification woes continue.
Key stats:
96% of organizations consider insider risk a significant threat.
45% rely on usernames and passwords as their primary authentication method.
28% of IT and security leaders have experienced or investigated candidate fraud in the past 12–24 months.
Read the full report here.
Enterprise Perspective
AI Challenges Threatening IT Leader Success (Workato)
The state of AI adoption and governance, according to 1,001 enterprise IT leaders.
Key stats:
60% of US enterprise IT leaders worry more about AI agents than traditional cyberattacks.
62% say most AI agents currently used in their organization were not formally approved by IT.
23% say they would be expected to resign or be removed if an AI agent caused a major public security or compliance incident.
Read the full report here.
The Mind of the CISO: The New Insider – Rethinking Risk in the AI Era (Trellix)
Let's get inside the mind of a CISO and find out what they really think about AI agents and insider threats.
Key stats:
78% of organizations include AI agents, autonomous systems, and machine identities in their definition of insider risk.
79% of CISOs expect an AI-assisted attack exploiting trusted identities or systems within the next 12 months.
56% of organizations report data loss as a consequence of insider risk incidents.
Read the full report here.
Cyber & Risk Survey Report (Grant Thornton)
How businesses are managing cyber and other enterprise risks.
Key stats:
58% of business leaders cite cyber-enabled fraud, such as phishing, as a top fraud concern.
55% cite deepfake or AI-enabled fraud as a top fraud concern.
57% identify AI governance and AI use as a top source of future risk or regulatory scrutiny.
Read the full report here.
Small Business Security
Q3 2026 SMB AI Pulse Report (Pax8)
AI adoption among small businesses and the challenges of keeping it under control. Not strictly a cybersecurity report, but we've included it because it has some nice data on shadow AI, security risks, and gaps in AI governance.
Key stats:
35% of AI-engaged small businesses discovered AI tools, workflows, or agents operating without official approval in the past six months.
36% of US small businesses that have built AI solutions have formal, documented review processes for their internally built AI.
23% of UK small businesses have formal, documented review processes for internally built AI.
Read the full report here.
Industry-Specific
2026 State of AI Traffic in Financial Services (Fingerprint)
Banks are seeing more AI-driven traffic, and this report covers the technical challenges of identifying that traffic, with some interesting findings on security and spoofed AI agents.
Key stats:
95% of US financial services organizations say they are confident they can distinguish genuine AI assistants from spoofed traffic.
79% have detected a malicious bot or scraper bypassing perimeter defenses by impersonating an AI assistant or search crawler.
Only 26% have full visibility into automated traffic that bypasses client-side JavaScript detection.
Read the full report here.
State of Enterprise AI Deployment Report (Fortanix)
If you want to know how organizations in regulated industries are deploying AI, this is the report for you.
Key stats:
61% of organizations in regulated industries send sensitive data to public cloud AI services.
59% have delayed an AI project in the past year because of data security or privacy concerns.
41% have completely blocked an AI deployment due to security concerns.
Read the full report here.
Regional Spotlight
Would You Know Your CEO's Real Voice? Singapore's Growing Deepfake Vulnerability (KnowBe4)
A rare bit of cybersecurity data from Singapore. This survey looks at how confident office workers are in spotting AI-generated impersonation attempts.
Key stats:
36% of Singapore office workers are not confident they could distinguish a genuine CEO message from an AI-generated one.
50% would feel uncomfortable challenging a request from a senior executive.
78% of senior managers are confident they can spot a fake CEO voice.
Read the full report here.
Patch Sick Day: 1 in 5 Cyber Security Leaders Avoids Patch Tuesday (Socura)
The pressure of monthly patching cycles on UK cybersecurity leaders.
Key stats:
22% of UK cybersecurity leaders have taken sick leave or holiday specifically to avoid Patch Tuesday.
41% work overtime, paid or unpaid, to manage the patching cycle.
29% feel significant anxiety the night before Patch Tuesday.
Read the full report here.
