The days of assuming another company’s breach is someone else’s problem are over

Publisher excerpt From CSO Online

The median blast radius of data breaches has increased year-on-year at the same time cybercriminals have begun using AI to mine stolen datasets for damaging information that enables follow-on fraud and cyberattacks. In 2026, the median breach exposed 542 organizations beyond the initially breached victim, according to a study by exposed data intelligence platform Lab 1. This compares to the median blast radius of a breach affecting 482 organizations last year. Breach impact spreads across supply chains Lab 1’s 2026 Anatomy of a Breach Report offers content-level analysis of stolen datasets — covering 328 million exposed files across 2,089 breached datasets — dumped online following data breaches such as ransomware extortion attacks. Larger breaches leaking more files and data give criminals substantially more material to exploit for fraud, extortion, and follow-on attacks, according to Lab 1. The median data breach size rose to 29.8GB of data (up 122% from 13.44GB in 2025) and 32,734 files (up 45% from 22,647). Lab 1 said the dataset is drawn from “ransomware and data-breach incidents in the public domain, reconstructed from forensic acquisitions of compromised systems.” Many businesses sit at the center of highly interconnected supply chains and hold data for extensive networks of clients, partners, users, and suppliers. Data stolen from such companies, including contracts, correspondence, and the like, can have follow-on impact on companies throughout their supply c…

Excerpt only, shown with attribution. This content belongs to the original publisher and has not been independently verified by CyberSecurity.pk.