Analyst Report

The CyberEdge 2026 Cyberthreat Defense Report (CDR)

80% of organizations were successfully attacked in 2025. See how your defenses, budgets, and strategies compare to peers across 17 countries and 19 industries in the most comprehensive vendor-agnostic study available.

Download the Report

What's Inside

Perceptions & Concerns

Phishing has overtaken malware as the #1 cyberthreat concern for the first time in 10 years
Ransomware payment rates surged 14.3% in a single year — who is most at risk
The AI-enabled threats keeping security teams up at night
Identity security: why 96.6% of organizations have at least one major concern

Current & Future Investments

IT security budget intentions — a new record with 9 in 10 organizations increasing spend
Network, endpoint, application, and data security: what's deployed and what's next
Why MDR is winning: speed, expertise, and time savings trump cost savings

Practices & Strategies

Cloud security priorities: identity management leads for the 12 months ahead
AI-enabled security tools: at least 75% of organizations are already using or implementing them
Quantum computing: 93.5% have started preparing — most haven't gotten far
How IT security leaders are engaging boards of directors more deeply than ever

About the Research

The 2026 CDR is based on a 27-question survey completed by 1,200 qualified IT security decision makers and practitioners across 17 countries and 19 industries in November–December 2025. All respondents work for organizations with 500 or more employees. Global margin of error: ±3% at a 95% confidence level.

Why This Report Matters

The CDR is the most geographically comprehensive, vendor-agnostic study of IT security decision makers and practitioners available. It's built to help you answer the questions that matter most:

- Where do we have gaps in our defenses relative to our peers?
- Are we spending enough on the right things?
- How are threat actors using AI, and are we keeping pace?
- Are we giving our board the right level of visibility?

80.7 %

of organizations hit by at least one successful cyberattack in 2025

90.4 %

of organizations expect their security budgets to rise in 2026 — a record high

80 %

of security professionals believe AI will reduce headcount in their role

Backed by the industry, loved by customers.

Outstanding results in 2025 MITRE

100% Detection Visibility
100% Technique-Level Coverage
100% Protection

Learn more

Top-tier performance according to our users

98% score for Real-Time Detection
97% score for 24x7 support
97% score for Automated Remediation

Learn more

Recommended by 95%

Overall 4.8/5 Rating
Product capabilities 4.8/5 Rating
Ease of deployment 4.8/5 Rating

Learn more