Computer Security Statistics 2026

Computer security is getting more expensive, more identity-driven, and more dependent on how quickly organizations patch, authenticate, and govern AI. The latest research shows that companies are dealing with larger cybercrime losses, costly data breaches, more third-party exposure, and a sharp rise in password and ransomware activity.

This roundup highlights the most important computer security statistics on cybercrime costs, breach trends, authentication, ransomware, AI-related security risks, and security spending.

Key computer security statistics

• Cybercrime is predicted to cost the world $10.5 trillion annually in 2025.
• Global end-user spending on information security is projected to reach $213 billion in 2025 and $240 billion in 2026.
• The average global cost of a data breach was $4.4 million in IBM’s 2025 report.
• IBM’s 2024 report put the average global cost of a data breach at a record $4.88 million.
• The FBI’s IC3 received 859,532 cybercrime complaints in 2024, with reported losses of $16.6 billion.
• Verizon analyzed 22,052 security incidents and 12,195 confirmed data breaches for its 2025 DBIR.
• Credential abuse accounted for 22% of non-error, non-misuse breaches in the 2025 DBIR, while exploitation of vulnerabilities accounted for 20% and phishing for 16%.
• Ransomware appeared in 44% of breaches in Verizon’s 2025 dataset.
• Human involvement showed up in 60% of breaches in the 2025 DBIR.
• Third-party involvement was present in 30% of breaches, double the prior year’s share.
• Microsoft says password-based attacks make up more than 99% of 600 million daily identity attacks.
• Microsoft blocked 7,000 password attacks per second over the past year.
• Microsoft mitigated 1.25 million DDoS attacks in the second half of the year, a 4x increase from the previous year.
• Microsoft research found MFA reduces the risk of compromise by 99.22% across the full population studied.
• The World Economic Forum reported in 2025 that the cyber skills gap had increased by 8% since 2024.
• In the 2026 World Economic Forum survey, 87% of respondents said AI-related vulnerabilities were the fastest-growing cyber risk in 2025.

Cybercrime and security spending statistics

Computer security is no longer just an IT line item. It is a macroeconomic issue shaped by expanding digital infrastructure, state-backed activity, organized cybercrime, stricter regulation, and AI-driven attack automation.

Cybersecurity Ventures forecasts cybercrime damages at $10.5 trillion in 2025. Gartner, meanwhile, projects worldwide end-user spending on information security at $213 billion in 2025, up from $193 billion in 2024, and rising again to $240 billion in 2026.

Global information security spending

Max = $239.8B. Widths: 2024 80.67%, 2025 88.85%, 2026 100.00%.

Data breach cost statistics

Data breaches remain one of the clearest ways to measure computer security risk because they combine technical failure, operational downtime, regulatory consequences, and customer fallout into one number.

• IBM’s 2025 Cost of a Data Breach Report puts the global average breach cost at $4.4 million.
• IBM says organizations with extensive use of AI in security saved $1.9 million compared with organizations that did not use those solutions.
• IBM’s 2024 report found the average breach cost reached $4.88 million, up 10% from 2023.
• In IBM’s 2024 study, 70% of organizations said the breach significantly or moderately disrupted operations.
• AI in prevention workflows lowered average breach cost by $2.2 million in IBM’s 2024 research.
• Organizations using AI and automation shortened average time to identify and contain a breach by nearly 100 days.
• Forty percent of breaches in IBM’s 2024 report involved data stored across public cloud, private cloud, and on-premises environments.
• Those multi-environment breaches took 283 days on average to identify and contain.
• Customer PII appeared in 46% of breaches in IBM’s 2024 dataset.

How attackers get in

The latest breach data shows that attackers still succeed most often through identity compromise, exposed systems, and social engineering. Password theft is still central, but unpatched edge systems and VPNs are now close behind.

Top initial access vectors in breaches

Max = 22%. Widths: Credential abuse 100.00%, Exploitation of vulnerabilities 90.91%, Phishing 72.73%.

• Verizon says exploitation of vulnerabilities as an initial access vector rose 34% year over year.
• Edge devices and VPNs accounted for 22% of vulnerability exploitation targets in the 2025 DBIR, up sharply from 3% the year before.
• Only about 54% of those edge device vulnerabilities were fully remediated during the year.
• The median time to fully remediate those vulnerabilities was 32 days.
• Verizon found the median time to remediate leaked secrets discovered in a GitHub repository was 94 days.

Ransomware, human error, and third-party exposure

Breaches are rarely caused by a single weak point. The 2025 DBIR shows how often people, partners, and extortion all show up in the same threat landscape.

Common breach characteristics

Max = 60%. Widths: Human element 100.00%, Ransomware 73.33%, Third-party involvement 50.00%.

• Ransomware was present in 44% of breaches in the 2025 DBIR, up from 32% in the previous report.
• That was a 37% increase year over year.
• The median ransom paid fell to $115,000 from $150,000 in the prior year.
• Sixty-four percent of victim organizations did not pay the ransom.
• Ransomware affected 88% of SMB breaches in Verizon’s dataset, versus 39% in larger organizations.
• Espionage-motivated breaches accounted for 17% of breaches, and 28% of state-sponsored incidents had a financial motive.

Identity and authentication statistics

Identity remains the center of modern computer security. The data shows that passwords are still the default attack path, which is why MFA, passkeys, and phishing-resistant authentication matter so much.

• Microsoft observed 600 million daily identity attacks.
• Password-based attacks made up more than 99% of those identity attacks.
• Microsoft blocked 7,000 password attacks per second over the previous year.
• Microsoft research found MFA reduces compromise risk by 99.22% overall and by 98.56% in leaked-credential scenarios.
• Microsoft also says more than 99.9% of compromised accounts do not have MFA.

DDoS and infrastructure security statistics

Availability attacks still matter, especially as more business activity moves online and application-layer attacks become harder to separate from normal traffic.

• Microsoft mitigated 1.25 million DDoS attacks in the second half of the year.
• That total represented a 4x increase compared with the previous year.
• Microsoft noted a shift toward application-layer attacks, which increase risk for services such as online banking and other public-facing systems.

AI and computer security statistics

AI is now part of the computer security story on both sides. Attackers are using it to improve phishing and automation, while organizations are struggling to put governance and access controls around their own AI deployments.

• IBM found that 97% of organizations reporting an AI-related security incident lacked proper AI access controls.
• IBM also found that 63% lacked AI governance policies to manage AI or prevent shadow AI.
• The World Economic Forum’s 2026 survey found 87% of respondents saw AI-related vulnerabilities as the fastest-growing cyber risk in 2025.
• The share of organizations assessing the security of their AI tools rose from 37% in 2025 to 64% in 2026.
• Roughly one-third of organizations still had no process to validate AI security before deployment.
• Verizon reported that synthetically generated text in malicious emails doubled over the past two years.
• Verizon also found that 15% of employees routinely accessed GenAI systems on corporate devices.
• Among those users, 72% used non-corporate email addresses for their GenAI accounts, and 17% used corporate email addresses without integrated authentication.

Cyber workforce and skills statistics

Security outcomes depend on staffing as much as tooling. Both IBM and the World Economic Forum show that organizations are still struggling to find enough qualified cybersecurity talent.

• The World Economic Forum reported in 2025 that the cyber skills gap increased by 8% since 2024.
• Two out of three organizations reported moderate-to-critical cyber skills gaps in the same survey.
• IBM reported that 53% of organizations in its 2024 breach study faced a high-level security staffing shortage.
• Organizations with severe staffing shortages experienced average breach costs that were $1.76 million higher than organizations with low-level or no staffing issues.

FBI internet crime statistics

Consumer-facing cybercrime remains a major part of the overall computer security picture, especially when measured through complaint volume and direct financial losses.

• The FBI’s IC3 logged 859,532 complaints in 2024.
• Reported losses reached $16.6 billion in 2024, a 33% increase from 2023.
• Among complaints with a reported loss, the average loss was $19,372.
• The top three cybercrimes by complaint volume in 2024 were phishing or spoofing, extortion, and personal data breaches.
• Victims over age 60 reported nearly $5 billion in losses and submitted the greatest number of complaints.
• Investment fraud involving cryptocurrency generated more than $6.5 billion in losses.

What these computer security statistics mean

The big picture is straightforward. Computer security risk is rising fastest where identity, patching, third-party dependencies, and AI governance overlap. Attackers are still getting in through passwords, stolen credentials, phishing, and exposed systems, while defenders are paying more each year for mistakes that are slow to detect or contain.

The organizations most likely to perform better are the ones that reduce password dependence, enforce MFA, patch exposed infrastructure faster, tighten vendor access, monitor data across multiple environments, and treat AI use like any other production risk surface.

Sources

• Cybersecurity Ventures. Cybercrime To Cost The World $10.5 Trillion Annually By 2025. https://cybersecurityventures.com/cybercrime-damage-costs-10-trillion-by-2025/
• Gartner. Gartner Forecasts Worldwide End-User Spending on Information Security to Total $213 Billion in 2025. https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2025-07-29-gartner-forecasts-worldwide-end-user-spending-on-information-security-to-total-213-billion-us-dollars-in-2025
• IBM. Cost of a Data Breach Report 2025. https://www.ibm.com/reports/data-breach
• IBM. IBM Report: Escalating Data Breach Disruption Pushes Costs to New Highs. https://newsroom.ibm.com/2024-07-30-ibm-report-escalating-data-breach-disruption-pushes-costs-to-new-highs
• Verizon Business. 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report. https://www.verizon.com/business/resources/reports/dbir/
• Verizon Business. 2025 DBIR PDF. https://www.verizon.com/business/resources/T16f/reports/2025-dbir-data-breach-investigations-report.pdf
• FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center. 2024 IC3 Annual Report. https://www.ic3.gov/AnnualReport/Reports/2024_IC3Report.pdf
• Microsoft. Microsoft Digital Defense Report 2024. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/security-insider/threat-landscape/microsoft-digital-defense-report-2024
• Microsoft Research. How Effective Is Multifactor Authentication at Deterring Cyberattacks? https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/publication/how-effective-is-multifactor-authentication-at-deterring-cyberattacks/
• World Economic Forum. Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2025. https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-cybersecurity-outlook-2025/
• World Economic Forum. Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2026. https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-cybersecurity-outlook-2026/

FAQ

What is the most important computer security statistic right now?

A strong case can be made for the average breach cost, which was $4.4 million in IBM’s 2025 report, because it converts security failure into a direct business number.

What is the biggest cause of breaches?

In Verizon’s 2025 DBIR, credential abuse was the top initial access vector at 22%, followed by exploitation of vulnerabilities at 20% and phishing at 16%.

How common is ransomware today?

Ransomware appeared in 44% of breaches in Verizon’s 2025 dataset, making it one of the defining security threats for businesses.

Does MFA really help?

Yes. Microsoft research found MFA reduces compromise risk by 99.22% overall, and Microsoft also says more than 99.9% of compromised accounts do not have MFA.

How is AI changing computer security?

AI is making malicious emails easier to generate while also creating new governance and data leakage risks inside organizations. At the same time, security teams using AI and automation are reporting faster response times and lower breach costs.