2026 SonicWall Cyber Protect Report | The 7 Deadly Sins of Cybersecurity
Official 2026 Release

2026 SonicWall Cyber Protect Report

The 7 Deadly Sins of Cybersecurity

Every vendor publishes a Threat Report. We publish a Protect Report—because our job isn’t to catalogue what went wrong, it’s to help you prevent it.

SonicWall 2026 Cyber Protect Report Cover

+20.8%

Increase in HM Intrusion Hits

85%

Alerts from Identity Gaps

181 Days

Avg. Attacker Dwell Time

Cyber Security Protection

Predictable. Preventable. Already Known.

Every year, we expect to find something new. A novel attack. A new technique. Something that surprises us. What we find, year after year, is the same thing.

The reality of modern cyber defence is that hackers don’t pick targets individually—automated bots generate over 36,000 vulnerability scans per second, probing every public website for simple flaws.

SMBs are not failing because they lack security tools. The tools are already there. The challenge is operational discipline and consistent enforcement of the basics.

  • Identify why identity is now the true perimeter.
  • Learn how to limit your blast radius effectively.
  • Transition from security tools to security outcomes.

Inside the 7 Deadly Sins

We analysed thousands of breach investigations to identify the recurring failures that lead to disaster. Which one is currently hiding in your environment?

01

Ignoring Fundamentals

85% of actionable security alerts in 2025 came from credential and identity compromise. Most breaches don't start advanced—they start with an unguarded door.

02

False Confidence

88% of SMB breaches involve ransomware. 80% of IT leaders claim they'd catch a breach in 8 hours, while the actual average dwell time is 181 days.

03

Overexposed Access

48% of breaches start with compromised VPN credentials. In the fastest observed cases, full network propagation occurred in just 18 minutes.

04

Reactive Posture

44% of all security alerts go uninvestigated due to noise volume. The signals were always in the logs, but nobody was watching when it counted.

05

Cost-Driven Decisions

The average SMB breach cost has reached $4.91M. Yet, organisations with comprehensive IR plans save $1.23M on average per incident.

06

Legacy Access Models

VPN CVEs grew by 82.5% in 2025. Attackers aren't breaking through firewalls anymore; they're logging in. Identity is the new perimeter.

07

Chasing Hype

90% of organisations lack AI maturity. Tools don't create outcomes—execution does. Don't let AI overcompensate for missing fundamentals.

Get the full remediation strategy for each sin inside the 78-page report.

Request Your Digital Copy

Gain immediate access to the full report and the 7-step roadmap to protection.

Download The Social Engineering Guide

Fill in your details below and hit download.