Why 73% of Organizations Still Aren’t Ready for a Cyberattack

Cyber incidents are no longer rare, isolated events. They are a business reality.

Yet despite significant investments in cybersecurity technologies, incident response plans, and security operations, most organizations still do not believe they are prepared to withstand a cyberattack without disruption.

During a recent Sygnia webinar, frontline experts Matt Mosley, Incident Response Manager, and Arsela Rama, Enterprise Security Team Lead, analyzed the findings of Sygnia’s 2026 CISO Survey Report and discussed what those findings reveal about the true state of incident response readiness. Drawing on years of experience responding to complex cyber incidents, they explored why readiness gaps persist and what security leaders can do to close them.

Executive Summary: Why Most Organizations Are Not Ready

According to Sygnia’s 2026 CISO Survey, 73% of organizations do not feel prepared to withstand a cyberattack without business disruption. At the same time, more than 75% experienced at least one attack in the past year.

The survey and webinar revealed a consistent reality:

The biggest incident response failures are not technology failures. They are failures of visibility, coordination, decision-making, and preparedness.

Organizations struggle when:

• Critical stakeholders are not aligned
• Visibility gaps prevent complete containment
• Executive decision authority is unclear
• Recovery procedures have never been tested
• Incident response plans exist on paper but have not been exercised

As Sygnia’s responders repeatedly see in the field, cyber incidents become business crises when organizations cannot move from detection to action quickly enough.

CISO Survey 2026: The State of Incident Response Readiness

Explore insights from 600 senior IT security leaders

Access Research and Findings

Key Takeaways

• 73% of organizations do not feel prepared to withstand a cyberattack without disruption.
• Fewer than 40% rate their existing incident response capabilities as highly effective.
• 90% expect difficulty coordinating stakeholders during a major incident.
• 78% believe visibility gaps increase the risk of persistent attacker access.
• 89% report limited executive or board involvement in incident response readiness activities.

The takeaway is clear: readiness is not defined by the number of security tools deployed. It is defined by how effectively people, processes, and technology perform under pressure.

Why Are Most Organizations Not Ready for a Cyberattack?

Many organizations have incident response plans, monitoring tools, forensic capabilities, and established security teams.

So why do they still lack confidence?

Because readiness is not measured by what exists on paper.

It is measured by how well an organization functions during the first hours of a crisis.

According to Matt Mosley, one of the most common signs of an unprepared organization is confusion during the first 24 hours:

• Who owns decision-making?
• Who should be brought into the response?
• What systems can be isolated?
• When should legal, communications, or cyber insurance become involved?
• What information must be disclosed and when?

When those questions cannot be answered quickly, containment slows, business disruption increases, and the incident becomes more difficult to manage.

What Causes Incident Response Plans to Fail?

One of the most surprising survey findings was that although most organizations have incident response plans and supporting capabilities, fewer than 40% consider them highly effective.

The reason is simple:

Capabilities are not the same as operational readiness.

Many organizations discover during a real incident that:

• Backup systems have never been tested
• Recovery procedures are unclear
• Escalation paths are outdated
• Stakeholders do not know their roles
• Security tools operate in silos

As Arsela Rama explained during the webinar, organizations frequently answer “yes” when asked whether they have backups. Far fewer can confidently answer whether those backups are isolated, clean, tested, and capable of supporting recovery within required timeframes.

The same principle applies across the entire incident response lifecycle.

What Are the Biggest Incident Response Readiness Gaps?

Based on the survey findings and Sygnia’s frontline experience, five readiness gaps consistently emerge.

1. Visibility Gaps

Organizations cannot contain what they cannot see.

Modern environments span:

• Cloud platforms
• SaaS applications
• Identity providers
• Endpoints
• On-premises infrastructure

Without centralized visibility across these domains, attackers can maintain access long after initial containment efforts begin.

2. Identity Weaknesses

Identity has become the primary attack surface.

Most modern attacks involve:

• Credential theft
• Account compromise
• Privilege escalation
• Abuse of legitimate access

Weak identity controls frequently enable attackers to move laterally and maintain persistence.

3. Stakeholder Coordination Failures

The survey found that 90% of respondents expect coordination challenges during a significant incident.

Legal, communications, executives, security teams, and operational leaders often have different priorities, timelines, and decision-making processes.

Without prior alignment, response efforts slow dramatically.

4. Untested Recovery Capabilities

Backup and recovery strategies often fail because organizations have never validated them under realistic conditions.

Recovery confidence should be based on testing—not assumptions.

5. Limited Executive Engagement

Many organizations continue to treat incident response as a security team responsibility.

In reality, cyber incidents are business events that require executive leadership, governance, and decision-making.

Why Incident Response Is a Business Problem, Not an IT Problem

One of the strongest themes throughout the webinar was that incident response extends far beyond security operations.

Every major incident exposes decisions made across the organization, including:

• Network architecture
• Identity strategy
• Governance models
• Access controls
• Visibility programs
• Recovery planning

As Arsela Rama explained, incidents reveal how organizations are actually built—not how they believe they are built.

This is why Sygnia consistently frames cyber incidents as business crises rather than technical events. Effective response requires coordination across:

• Security
• IT
• Legal
• Communications
• Operations
• Executive leadership
• Board stakeholders

Organizations that recognize this reality tend to respond more effectively and recover faster.

What Role Should Executives and Boards Play in Incident Response?

The survey found that 89% of respondents see limited executive or board involvement in incident response readiness.

This creates significant risk.

Before an incident occurs, executive teams should already know:

• Escalation procedures
• Decision-making authority
• Regulatory obligations
• Communication responsibilities
• Business continuity priorities

The goal is not to turn executives into incident responders.

The goal is to ensure they can make informed decisions quickly when business-critical choices must be made.

Organizations that include executives in tabletop exercises and crisis simulations consistently improve decision speed and response effectiveness.

How CISOs Can Improve Incident Response Readiness in the Next 90 Days

Organizations cannot fix everything at once.

However, the webinar highlighted several practical actions CISOs can take immediately.

Days 1–30: Improve Visibility

• Identify visibility gaps across cloud, SaaS, endpoints, and identity systems
• Review logging coverage
• Validate security telemetry quality
• Prioritize critical attack paths

Days 31–60: Strengthen Governance

• Conduct executive tabletop exercises
• Review escalation procedures
• Clarify decision authority
• Align legal, communications, and business stakeholders

Days 61–90: Validate Recovery Readiness

• Test backup restoration procedures
• Verify recovery objectives
• Review asset ownership
• Prioritize remediation of high-severity findings

The objective is not perfection.

The objective is improving readiness where it matters most.

Where Should Organizations Invest First?

When asked how organizations should prioritize limited security budgets, both speakers repeatedly returned to three foundational areas:

Visibility

Visibility remains the foundation of effective detection, investigation, and containment.

Identity Security

Modern attacks increasingly depend on credential abuse and privilege escalation.

Organizations should prioritize:

• Phishing-resistant MFA
• Privileged access management
• Identity monitoring
• Administrative account separation

Tabletop Exercises

Organizations build readiness through repetition.

Regular tabletop exercises create the operational muscle memory needed during a real incident.

FAQ: Incident Response Readiness

What is incident response readiness?

Incident response readiness is an organization’s ability to rapidly detect, contain, investigate, respond to, and recover from a cyber incident while minimizing business disruption.

Why do incident response plans fail?

Incident response plans often fail because they are not regularly tested, stakeholders are not aligned, decision authority is unclear, and critical visibility gaps remain unresolved.

What are the most important incident response investments?

Based on Sygnia’s survey findings and frontline incident response experience, organizations should prioritize:

• Visibility assessments
• Identity security
• Tabletop exercises
• Backup validation
• Executive readiness

How often should organizations conduct tabletop exercises?

At minimum, organizations should conduct tabletop exercises annually. More frequent exercises are recommended following major organizational changes, leadership turnover, mergers, or significant technology transformations.

Why is executive involvement important during cyber incidents?

Cyber incidents create business, legal, operational, regulatory, and reputational consequences. Executive leaders play a critical role in decision-making, stakeholder communications, and business continuity planning.

Readiness Is Proven Under Pressure

The most important lesson from Sygnia’s 2026 CISO Survey is that incident response readiness cannot be measured by technology inventories, maturity scores, or documented plans.

It is measured by how effectively an organization performs under pressure.

Organizations that consistently respond well to cyber incidents share common characteristics:

• Strong visibility
• Effective identity controls
• Clear decision authority
• Tested recovery processes
• Executive engagement
• Cross-functional coordination

Cyber incidents are inevitable.

The difference between a manageable event and a business crisis often comes down to readiness.

Want to hear the complete discussion and gain additional insights from Sygnia’s frontline experts?

Watch the webinar to learn how leading organizations are improving incident response readiness, reducing business risk, and building measurable cyber resilience.