SonicWall Reorients Annual Research Around SMB Protection Outcomes — 2026 Cyber Protection Report Reveals 'Seven Deadly Sins'

MILPITAS, Calif. — March 31, 2026 — SonicWall today announced its 2026 SonicWall Cyber Protection Report, marking a significant shift from traditional threat reports to one focused on protection outcomes critical to business leaders. At the heart of the report is a finding that demands serious attention: Most small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) don’t fail due to sophisticated attacks. They fail because of seven predictable and preventable gaps SonicWall has dubbed the “Seven Deadly Sins of Cybersecurity.”

The 2026 report continues to leverage data from SonicWall’s global network of more than 1 million security sensors to unveil an even more precise and persistent threat landscape. Some key statistical findings include:

• High and medium severity attacks increased by 20.8%, totaling 13.15 billion. Attackers are not increasing frequency; they’re attacking smarter.

• Automated bots now generate over 36,000 vulnerability scans per second, accounting for more than half of all internet traffic. Malicious bot traffic alone has surged to 37% of global internet traffic.

• IoT attacks increased 11% to 609 million. Log4j alone saw 824.9 million IPS (Intrusion Prevention System) detections in 2025, four years after its public disclosure.

• Identity, cloud, and credential compromise account for 85% of actionable security alerts. Stolen passwords, not zero-days, are the attackers’ weapon of choice.

• SMBs are ill-prepared for ransomware. 88% of SMB breaches in 2025 were ransomware-related, more than double the rate seen in larger enterprises.

“SonicWall data confirms attacks are accelerating, and in some cases getting a bit more sophisticated,” said Michael Crean, SonicWall SVP & GM, Managed Security Services. “But the vast majority of attacks we are seeing and investigating are foundational. It’s not that AI isn’t working. It’s that we are using AI as an excuse not to do what we already know we should be doing.”

The 2026 SonicWall Cyber Protection Report is the first in the company’s history to not only include threat statistics, but to focus on protection outcomes. In this year’s research, SonicWall identified seven recurring patterns dubbed the “Seven Deadly Sins,” clarifying a consistent definition of resilience versus exposure across SMB breach investigations, security assessments, and incident reviews.

The Seven Deadly Sins of Cybersecurity

Rather than attributing breach risk to exceptional or novel attack methods, the 2026 Protection Report identifies seven operational failures, many preventable, seen repeatedly in investigations. The Seven Deadly Sins are:

1. Ignoring the Basics — Weak authentication, unpatched systems, and excessive administrative privileges remain primary attack surfaces.

2. Overconfidence — Believing your small size makes you an unlikely target, overestimating the effectiveness of controls, and assuming resilience without testing create dangerous blind spots.

3. Excessively Permissive Access — Overly generous rules, flat networks, and implicit trust after authentication provide attackers with an unimpeded path once they get in.

4. Passive Security Posture — Without 24/7 monitoring or proactive threat hunting, attackers set the schedule. The average breach goes undetected for 181 days.

5. Cost-Driven Security Decisions — Postponing investments based on short-term budget pressures creates downstream costs, often higher than the investment. Including downtime and recovery, a single SMB breach can exceed $4.91 million.

6. Reliance on Legacy Access Models — VPNs, once authenticated, grant broad network access and remain one of the most exploited intrusion points in enterprise security. VPN CVEs increased 82.5% during the period analyzed.

7. Chasing Trends Rather Than Executing — Buying the latest tools without fully implementing them and expecting technology to fill process gaps is a vulnerability in itself. Tools don’t create outcomes. Execution does.

Crean continued, “Organizations that suffer major damage don’t fail because of sophisticated attacks, but because of predictable and preventable gaps. SMBs are the backbone of the U.S. economy, representing 99% of all U.S. businesses and nearly half of private sector employment. Protecting these businesses protects entire communities. That’s why this report is not just about threat statistics, but about protection outcomes.”

In line with SonicWall’s partner-first mission, the 2026 Cyber Protection Report aims to equip MSPs and MSSPs with the data and means necessary to have strategic conversations with SMB decision-makers, translating technical threat intelligence into actionable business risks for leaders.

The SonicWall 2026 Cyber Protection Report makes one thing clear: The difference between being protected and being exposed is rarely about technology. It’s about execution. This report aims to bridge that gap for SMBs and the MSPs and MSSPs protecting them, with data, clarity, and a roadmap for what to do next.

For more information on SonicWall and to read the full 2026 SonicWall Cyber Protection Report, please visit https://www.sonicwall.com/ja-jp/resources/white-papers/sonicwall-2026-cyber-protect-report

*This release is a translation of a press release by SonicWall US. For more details, please contact SonicWall Japan.

【 About SonicWall 】

For more than 30 years, SonicWall has been driving a partner-first model, combining purpose-built technology, cloud-delivered security services, and real-time threat intelligence to help businesses prevent breaches, mitigate risks, and continue operations in the face of an ever-evolving modern threat landscape. While others offer features and functions, we are committed to providing the best security outcomes for our customers. Through an integrated cybersecurity portfolio and a global community of more than 17,000 partners, SonicWall enables managed service providers to proactively manage, continuously optimize, and visibly protect networks, cloud environments, endpoints, and applications. We are redefining cybersecurity with a focus on outcomes that matter to business leaders – breach prevention, compliance, cost efficiency, and reduction of human error. That’s because protection is not about what a product can do, but what it can actually deliver.

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