96% of Ransomware Victims Are Small Businesses, Verizon 2026 DBIR Finds
Verizon's 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report reveals that 96% of ransomware victims with known organization sizes were small and medium-sized businesses. Ransomware now appears in 48% of all confirmed breaches, up from 44% the previous year, with third-party involvement in SMB breaches rising sharply to 55%. Vulnerability exploitation has overtaken stolen credentials as the top attack vector for the first time in the report's 19-year history, with the gap between CVE disclosure and active exploitation shrinking to hours. Despite the growing threat, 47% of businesses with fewer than 50 employees still allocate no budget to cybersecurity, according to StrongDM 2025 data. On a positive note, 69% of ransomware victims now refuse to pay ransoms, up from 50% two years ago, suggesting that improved backup practices and shifting norms are beginning to reduce attacker leverage.
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