Survey: Most Cybersecurity Incidents Stem From Known Vulnerabilities
Security Boulevard, Thursday, July 16th, 2026
Survey of 300 IT and security pros finds 79% had an incident in the past year tied to a known vulnerability.
A survey of 300 IT and cybersecurity professionals found 79% of respondents work at organizations that suffered a security incident in the past 12 months involving an already-known vulnerability.
More than half of those organizations had known about the flaw for at least 30 days before the incident occurred.
Only 25% can automate remediation workflows directly inside their security platforms, leaving the rest dependent on manual processes.
Competing priorities, slow approval workflows, and labor-intensive procedures are the main barriers to fast remediation. Experts argue automation is now essential because exploit development outpaces human patching speed.