Fortifying Enterprise Defenses: From the Edge to the Core

Enterprise defenses are designed to detect and prevent noisy attacks, but this year’s data reveals that attackers are succeeding by operating silently.

According to the latest findings from Picus Labs’ Blue Report 2026, which analyzed over 338 million real attack simulations in client production environments in the first half of 2026, defenses are performing well. The average prevention effectiveness has increased from 62% to 69%, matching the peak in 2024, and logging has reached a four-year high of 58%.

While there is progress at the perimeter, the real challenge lies within the network once the perimeter is breached. Defenses that appear strong from the outside often falter against quiet tactics such as reconnaissance and credential theft, which precede major breaches.

One significant revelation from the report is the post-compromise prevention rate, which measures controls’ ability to disrupt an attack chain once an adversary has infiltrated the network. The post-compromise prevention rate stands at a low 37%, indicating that defenses inside the network are less effective compared to perimeter defenses.

Interestingly, while malicious activities like running code or moving between machines are frequently blocked, quiet actions like reconnaissance and credential theft are rarely detected. Attackers can operate stealthily, gathering information and credentials without triggering any alerts.

The report also highlights the limitations of signature-based prevention, showing that while traditional credential theft methods are often blocked, more subtle tactics like reading credentials from the registry go undetected. This underscores the need for behavioral-based testing in addition to signature-based approaches.

Attackers are increasingly focusing on stealthy tactics, such as hiding command history, which are harder for defenses to detect. As a result, the prevention rate against known malicious files delivered as downloads has decreased, indicating a shift towards evasive tactics by attackers.

Despite improvements in prevention effectiveness, the gap between what is logged and what triggers alerts remains significant. Only a small fraction of simulated attacks result in alerts, highlighting the need for better detection mechanisms.

The report emphasizes the importance of continuous validation and testing of security controls, as well as the need to prioritize detection engineering to ensure that logs translate into actionable alerts.

In conclusion, the findings suggest that organizations need to focus on validating exposures, strengthening defenses against quiet actions, and treating detection rules as part of ongoing security engineering efforts. By addressing these areas, organizations can better protect against evolving threats and improve overall security posture.

For more detailed insights and analysis, download the full Blue Report 2026 from Picus Labs to understand where defenses are strong and where potential gaps exist.

Disclaimer: This article was authored by Sıla Özeren Hacıoğlu, Security Research Engineer at Picus Security.