Organizations Struggle to Prepare for Major Cyberattacks

Many organizations have incident response plans, security tools, and technical teams prepared for cyberattacks. However, recent research indicates that there may be a lack of coordination, visibility, and executive alignment necessary to effectively handle a serious cyberattack.

Based on a survey of 600 senior IT security decision makers in early 2026, The State of Incident Response Readiness 2026 reveals that 73% of organizations admit they would not be fully prepared if a significant cybersecurity attack were to occur immediately.

This highlights a significant gap between having incident response capabilities and being able to execute them efficiently under pressure. The report also shows that cyberattacks are a recurring business risk, with 76% of organizations experiencing at least one cyberattack in the past year, and 32% facing multiple attacks.

Challenges in Incident Response Readiness

Incident response has evolved beyond technical containment to include executive crisis management, legal coordination, stakeholder communications, and more. However, the survey indicates that many organizations struggle to integrate these elements effectively. Less than 40% of respondents rated key incident response components, such as documented plans and threat hunting, as highly effective.

Coordination breakdowns during incidents can slow response efforts significantly. The report found that 90% of organizations anticipate difficulties in coordinating stakeholders during a significant incident, especially when legal and communications teams are not aligned from the start.

Limited executive or board involvement in incident response readiness and decision-making was also identified as a concern, with 89% of respondents citing this issue.

Visibility Challenges and Risks

Organizations often struggle to fully see where attackers have infiltrated their systems, leading to blind spots that can allow attackers to maintain access and increase the risk of repeated incidents. This lack of visibility hinders responders from answering critical questions about the attack.

Concerns about attackers moving from corporate IT systems into operational technology or industrial control systems environments were also highlighted, particularly in sectors like manufacturing, energy, healthcare, and transportation.

Impact of Cyberattacks

Cyber incidents have tangible consequences, including operational shutdowns, data loss, reputational damage, customer loss, and lost revenue. Different sectors and regions experience varying impacts, with North America reporting the highest cyberattack incidence.

Future Threats and AI Adoption

Ransomware and cloud environment attacks are key concerns for organizations looking ahead. While AI adoption is rising for threat detection and incident response, it is not a substitute for readiness. AI should be integrated into mature workflows to enhance response capabilities.

Enhancing Incident Response Readiness

Organizations can strengthen their incident response readiness by defining decision rights, testing cross-functional coordination, validating visibility across critical environments, using AI to support response processes, and assessing internal and external response capacity.

The bottom line is that incident response readiness should be an ongoing operational discipline rather than a static plan. Organizations must ensure that their response capabilities work seamlessly across teams, technologies, and business operations to effectively combat cyber threats.