Marie Wilcox
What CISOs Expect From Investigations in 2026: Speed, Clarity, Proof.
Cyberattacks aren’t a “risk” anymore. They’re an operating condition.
In The State of Cybersecurity Investigations 2026 Report, 84% of CISOs say a successful cyberattack is “inevitable.” But inevitability shouldn’t mean uncertainty. Too many organizations still struggle to learn the right lessons fast enough, so the same playbook can work against them again.
This is the gap that matters in 2026.
Not the gap between prevention tools. The gap between detection and decisive investigation, and the ability to move from “something happened” to what happened, what it means, and what we do next.
For CISOs, it’s resilience, accountability, and stakeholder confidence. For SOC and security leaders, it’s delivering executive-ready answers at speed.
Below are four key findings from the report, and what leaders should prioritize in 2026.
Insight 1: "Inevitable" breaches demand investigation readiness, not just prevention
Budgets still skew toward prevention: an average 2:1 ratio ($3.02M prevention vs. $1.54M response). Prevention matters, but when breaches are expected, resilience is defined by what happens next: how quickly you can investigate, contain, and recover without guesswork.
What to pay attention to in 2026:
- Shift from “more detection” to investigation readiness (repeatable, measurable, practiced)
- Start evidence collection early: 8.6 hours on average to activate forensics; while many CISOs believe it should be immediate
- Make investigation proactive: validate exposure, hunt weak points, and close the loop before attackers return
Insight 2: Crisis frameworks are failing when answers are needed
When an incident hits, leadership needs basic truths:
- Do attackers still have access?
- How did they get in?
- What data was accessed or compromised?
Yet only 40% of CISOs have complete confidence in their crisis management framework. Confidence collapses when the business is asking for certainty and the team is working with partial visibility.
What to pay attention to in 2026:
- Make evidence quality a leadership requirement, not a technical nice-to-have
- Operationalize your investigation workflow: what gets collected, how fast, from where, and who can trigger it
- Design for repeatability: because “once” rarely means “last time”
Insight 3: Delays cost real money, inconclusive investigations cost trust
CISOs estimate $114,000 per hour of delay responding to a known cyberattack. Yet the average investigation produces results 8.5 days after discovery.
Even after days of effort, clarity still isn’t guaranteed:
- 75% of CISOs feel they’re missing key information every time there’s a breach
- 72% have started investigations without knowing where to look first
What to pay attention to in 2026:
- Measure investigation velocity: time to first evidence, time to scoping confidence, time to stakeholder-ready reporting
- Reduce “black holes”: CISOs report visibility across only 57% of their environment at any one time this leads to analysts not starting in the right place with an investigation or looking at the wrong things.
Prioritize conclusive evidence for regulators and insurers—because uncertainty becomes risk in reporting, claims, and recovery decisions.
Insight 4: The investigation skills shortages and burnout are weakening cyber resilience
Even with an average of 18 skilled investigators, 90% of CISOs say skills gaps have hampered investigations. Only 32% say they have all the skills needed to run investigations fully in-house. And 71% worry their skilled investigators are overworked and at risk of burnout.
This isn’t just a staffing issue. It’s an operational reality: when the pressure spikes, investigation capacity breaks first.
What to pay attention to in 2026:
- Stop designing response plans that assume unlimited expert time
- Use automation to speed up collection and triage but keep humans in control of decisions
- Upskill those using investigation tooling, without compromising evidentiary standards
The 2026 takeaway: CISOs demand proof, not probability
Teams don’t need more alerts. They need timely answers that are grounded in evidence.
Your SIEM/EDR/XDR can tell you something has happened. Your business needs to know more context around that alert. Investigation readiness is the way to bridge that gap so the SOC can deliver the clarity that investigators need and CISOs and executives expect.
Download The State of Cybersecurity Investigations 2026 Report to benchmark where you stand and see how leading teams approach investigation readiness in 2026.
