Summary
The 2026 Breach Impact Study (BIS) is a technical report that analyzes cyber insurance claims data in collaboration with CyberAcuView. This inaugural study reviews approximately 70,000 claims from January 1, 2019, to October 31, 2025, focusing on the financial impacts of data breaches. The report aims to provide a data-driven measure of organizational financial impacts while maintaining statistical rigor. It outlines the methodology used to analyze the dataset, which includes both closed claims with final payouts and open claims with reserved amounts. The BIS aims to bridge the gap between cybersecurity and cyber insurance industries by offering insights into the trends of cyber incidents, including the prevalence of ransomware and Business Email Compromise (BEC). The report also emphasizes the importance of understanding insurable losses and the limitations of the dataset, which does not account for uninsured losses or reputational damage. The structure of the report mirrors that of the Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR), with sections dedicated to results and analysis, incident type analysis, and industry breakdowns.
