Data Breach Outlook 2026: The Third-Party Domino Effect

Every year in the Data Breach Outlook, Kroll reviews its breach data to identify the hardest-hit industry and the trends shaping risk across sectors. Our analysis ran from June 2025 to June 2026 and found the most breached industry was financial services.

This year, Kroll also examined how many individuals were affected by the breaches Kroll handled to better understand their overall scale. Surprisingly, it was not the finance or healthcare sectors that accounted for the most affected individuals, but the technology sector. Between June 2025 and June 2026, 60% of all individuals impacted in Kroll-observed cases were linked to breaches in the technology sector.

Finance Tops the Chart, But No One Is Breached Alone

Between June 2025 and June 2026, finance was the most breached industry, accounting for 20% of breaches handled by Kroll. While this is less than the 22% of breaches from 2024, it ranks higher than any other industry for June 2025–June 2026.

The biggest surprise is the rise of breaches in the professional services industry, taking the second-place spot and accounting for 20% of breaches handled by Kroll. This is a 45% increase in breaches compared with data from the Kroll report published in 2025.

Breach Frequency Versus Individuals Affected

Of the data breach cases Kroll observed, the technology industry has the most impacted individuals. This is a clear difference between the most impacted industry, in this case finance with the greatest number of companies breached, and the technology industry, with the most people within that industry impacted.

This shows that despite an industry seeming more susceptible to breach, such as the finance or healthcare industry, the domino effect of a company breach in the technology or insurance industry could be much more extensive.

Anatomy of a Third-Party Breach: The Domino Effect

One vendor compromise can generate breach notifications for dozens or hundreds of downstream organizations that never touched the vulnerable system directly. As mentioned, 69% of impacted individuals were breached due to a third-party breach.

While looking at the number of compromised individuals from a breach, as opposed to the number of companies, one can begin to see the scale of a breach as well as why a look at the most breached industry might not tell the full story.

The chart below demonstrates that of 69% of impacted individuals, 79% of those individuals were from the technology sector, compared to finance (9%), insurance (6%), healthcare (5%). With over two thirds of cases attributed to this risk, it demands greater scrutiny and attention.

Much More Included in the Report

Analysis on fluctuations in data breaches to the technology, insurance and manufacturing industries
How the complexity of third party breaches impacts all industries, especially when it comes to breach notification
Contributing insights from Kroll experts Katherine Keefe and Eric Strom
Stats and insights on how breaches are still happening today, and the threats they pose

To understand more about how the data breach notification process works and what you can do ahead of time to ensure it runs as smoothly as possible with minimal financial and reputational damage, reach out to our data breach experts.

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Denyl Green

Global Head of Breach Notification

Cyber and Data Resilience

Nashville

Denyl Green [email protected]+1 615 577 6707

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