Cyberattacks Paralyze Firms for Weeks as Resilience Slips, New Report Reveals

SEATTLE, WA – January 08, 2026 – For modern enterprises, the question is no longer if a cyberattack will occur, but how long the business will be down when it does. A landmark global survey published today by Absolute Security reveals a sobering reality: recovery is neither swift nor simple. The report found that no organization could restore business operations within a single day following a cyber incident, with a majority facing nearly five days of disruption and some remaining crippled for as long as two weeks.

These findings, detailed in the first installment of The Resilient CISO: The State of Enterprise Resilience eBook series, paint a stark picture of the gap between cyber threats and corporate preparedness. The survey, which gathered insights from 750 Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) in the US and UK, exposes the severe operational and financial consequences of incidents that render endpoint devices inoperable, a common outcome in an era of hybrid work.

The Staggering Cost of Downtime

The financial and operational toll of a successful cyberattack is escalating dramatically. According to the Absolute Security survey, 55% of organizations experienced a significant cyberattack, ransomware infection, or data breach in the past 12 months. When disaster struck, the recovery process was painfully slow. A majority of CISOs (57%) reported that their organizations required more than 4.5 days on average for full remediation, while a significant portion (19%) said recovery efforts dragged on for up to two weeks.

These prolonged disruptions carry a hefty price tag. The research indicates 98% of organizations are spending between $1 million and $5 million to recover from each incident, with the average direct cost now standing at $2.5 million. However, this figure only accounts for remediation and does not include the cascading losses from business downtime, reputational damage, and regulatory fines, suggesting the true financial impact is far greater.

These findings are consistent with, and in some cases conservative compared to, broader industry data. The 2024 IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report, for example, found the global average cost of a breach reached a record $4.88 million. That same report highlighted an even more protracted timeline, noting it took an average of 258 days just to identify and contain a breach, with full recovery often taking many more months. The consensus is clear: the dream of a one-day recovery is, for now, a fantasy.

“There is simply no way to avoid the inevitable—at some point every organization will face the reality of a cyber incident or attack that takes down the business,” said Christy Wyatt, President and CEO of Absolute Security, in a statement accompanying the release. “Organizations that aren’t prepared to bounce back quickly face an almost existential crisis, as prolonged downtime can crush a business.”

The CISO on the Firing Line

As downtime stretches from hours into days and weeks, the burden of responsibility is increasingly falling on the shoulders of one executive: the CISO. The survey reveals a fundamental shift in the role, with 72% of respondents agreeing their duties have evolved beyond traditional security and risk management to leading their organization's recovery and business continuity efforts.

This expanded mandate comes with immense pressure. A staggering 61% of CISOs stated their organization’s board and C-suite expect them to guarantee zero breaches and ransomware incidents—an impossible task in the current threat landscape. This unrealistic expectation is fueling significant personal and professional anxiety, with 59% of security leaders admitting they are concerned that a major incident causing significant downtime could lead to job loss, personal liability, and legal penalties. This fear is amplified by new regulatory pressures, such as the SEC’s cybersecurity disclosure rules, which mandate greater transparency and hold leadership accountable.

“As security and risk leaders, we need to expand our focus beyond just traditional security,” Wyatt added. “We must also be the driving force behind ensuring business operations run consistently and without disruption.”

The Cyber Resilience Paradox

Given the high stakes, logic would dictate that Cyber Resilience—the ability to withstand and rapidly recover from attacks—would be a top and growing priority. Shockingly, the survey reveals the opposite trend, uncovering what could be called a 'Resilience Paradox.'

While 68% of CISOs report having a Cyber Resilience strategy in place, this is a sharp decline from the 90% who claimed to have one less than a year ago in a previous Absolute Security survey. More concerning is the apparent slip in prioritization. Just 65% of CISOs now agree their organization prioritizes Cyber Resilience over traditional prevention, detection, and response. This is a significant drop from 83% in the prior year's survey.

This finding appears to conflict with other industry analyses. Reports from firms like Gartner have identified operational resilience as the top strategic focus for CISOs in 2025, suggesting that while the concept is gaining traction at a high level, its practical implementation and prioritization in day-to-day operations may be lagging. The discrepancy could point to a dangerous disconnect where CISOs acknowledge the importance of resilience but are constrained by budgets and a culture still focused on prevention-only tools.

This potential complacency comes at a perilous time. As adversaries become more sophisticated, the need for a resilient posture only grows.

“Enhancing cyber resilience is vital for all organizations in the public and private sectors. CISOs cannot risk taking their eyes off cyber resilience in an era when adversaries now use AI to craft better phishing campaigns and new malware,” commented Jarad Carleton, Global Cybersecurity Market Research Director at Frost & Sullivan. “Forward thinking organizations have CISOs who move quickly to embed technologies that give them a measurable edge against inevitable cyberattacks, software failures, and disruptions to their businesses.”

The report ultimately underscores a critical inflection point for enterprise security. With attacks guaranteed and rapid recovery far from certain, the strategic drift away from resilience could leave many organizations dangerously exposed when their defenses are inevitably breached.