Cybersecurity risks rise as third-party breaches increase

Enterprises are facing increasing cybersecurity challenges due to the limitations of periodic vulnerability scans and static third-party risk assessments. A report from Qualys indicates that the mean time-to-exploit has reached negative seven days, meaning adversaries are weaponizing vulnerabilities even before patches are released.

Simultaneously, third-party data breaches have seen a significant rise. According to Verizon’s 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report, 48% of breaches involve a third party, representing a 60% increase from the previous year. Despite this, 67% of organizations still rely on point-in-time security audits to assess third-party threats.

Experts suggest that modern environments require continuous risk monitoring and attack surface management to address visibility gaps caused by cloud workloads, unmanaged devices, and evolving vendor ecosystems. Moving away from manual, cyclical reviews toward real-time monitoring is becoming a necessary baseline for maintaining security and compliance with frameworks like SOC 2, ISO 27001, and HIPAA.