Sophos forecasts industry-wide incident response capacity crunch as cyberattacks rise
XLK•Sophos warned that rising cyberattacks are straining incident response capacity across the industry. Google Threat Intelligence recorded 141 exploited vulnerabilities from January through August 2026, compared with 127 in all of 2025.
1. Capacity under pressure
Sophos said its own incident response operation is busier than ever as cyberattacks accelerate. It warned that underreporting obscures breach costs and said organizations without security funding and expertise face the greatest exposure.
2. Risks and response
Sophos said criminal adoption of AI remains at an early stage, leaving scope for attacks to scale as operational barriers fall. Its analysis urged boards to accept operational disruption to speed patching, reduce internet exposure and expand AI-assisted defense.
