Time to exploit drops to 72 minutes as AI automation accelerates cyberattacks.

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Palo Alto Networks' 2026 Global Incident Response Report reveals that cyberattack timelines have compressed dramatically, with the fastest attacks moving from initial access to data exfiltration in just 72 minutes (down from five hours in 2024). While AI automation accelerates attacker capabilities, the analysis of 750 incidents shows that most breaches stem from basic security failures: weak authentication, excessive permissions (99% of 680,000 cloud identities analyzed), misconfigurations, and lack of visibility across hybrid environments. Identity-related issues played a role in 90% of incidents, with growing challenges around machine identities, shadow accounts, and third-party SaaS exploitation (23% of cases). The report suggests that traditional SOCs struggle to keep pace, prompting Palo Alto to launch a new managed XSIAM 2.0 service designed for machine-speed threat response.

Cyber attacks enabled by basic failings, Palo Alto analysis finds