Blue Report 2026: Enterprise Security Performance Benchmarks

The Blue Report 2026 analyzes 338 million attack simulations to reveal how enterprise security controls stand up to real-world attacks. See where defenses succeed, where they fail, and what adversaries can actually accomplish.

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Prevention Score
went from 62% to

69%

Log Score
went from 54% to

58%

Alert Score
held flat at

14%

Executive Summary

Measured from the inside.

37%

Post-CompromisePrevention Rate

50%

IOC-BasedPrevention Rate

10%

StealthPrevention Rate

Prevention recovered to 69% this year. The headline finding is what happens next: once an attacker has authenticated access, it drops to 37%. Indicator-based malware defense sits at 50%, because signatures cannot keep pace with nearly 2 million new files a day. Quiet discovery and collection are stopped just one time in ten.

Key findings

Key findings at a glance

Blue Report 2026 4th annual edition Published 11 August 2026 By Picus Labs

Headline metrics from the Blue Report 2026. Percentages use different denominators: the overall Prevention Score covers all simulated attacks, while the post-compromise and stealth rates are measured per attacker action after access is gained.

Blue Report 2026 — key findings
Metric	Value	Period & scope	Source
Prevention Score (overall prevention effectiveness)	69%	H1 2026 (Jan–Jun 2026), all simulated attacks; up from 62% in 2025	Blue Report 2026, p. 3 (At a Glance)
Log Score	58%	H1 2026, share of simulated attacks that were logged; up from 54%	Blue Report 2026, p. 3
Alert Score	14%	H1 2026, share of simulated attacks that generated an alert; flat vs 14% in 2025	Blue Report 2026, p. 3, 4, 13
Post-Compromise Prevention Rate	37%	Per attacker action after authenticated access (Autonomous Penetration Testing), H1 2026	Blue Report 2026, p. 4
IOC-Based Prevention Rate (malware download scenarios)	50%	H1 2026; down 21 points over two years	Blue Report 2026, p. 4
Stealth Prevention Rate (discovery & collection actions)	10%	Per-action basis, H1 2026	Blue Report 2026, p. 4
Sample size	338M+	Attack simulations run by Picus customers, Jan–Jun 2026, anonymized and aggregated	Blue Report 2026, p. 10 (Methodology)

Methodology

Findings are based on simulated attack scenarios executed by Picus Security customers from January to June 2026, anonymized and aggregated from over 338 million attack simulations. Research and analysis by Picus Labs and Picus Data Science teams. Prevention effectiveness = share of simulated attacks blocked by security controls. Log Score = share of simulated attacks that were logged. Alert Score = share of simulated attacks that generated an alert.

The full report (PDF) is available through the download form on this page.

Key Findings

Strong at the door. Soft on the inside.

Prevention and logging both improved this year. Neither changed what happens after an attacker gets in.

Blue Report security guardian with shield

Strong at the perimeter, soft on the inside

The average prevention score rose back to 69%, but averaged across individual attacker actions tested, only 37% were blocked. Loud actions are caught; an attacker inside can still map the domain with little resistance.

62% → 69% ▲ recovery

Adversaries are leaning into stealth

Stealth was one of only two tactics to decline in prevention. The actions that succeeded most were precisely the low-noise ones — discovery and collection ran almost unopposed.

10% ▼ stealth prevention

Logging improves, but alerts stay flat

The log score reached a four-year high, yet fewer than 1 in 7 simulated attacks produced a meaningful alert. Turning telemetry into timely alerts remains the hardest part of the pipeline.

54% → 58% ■ alert flat 14%

IOC-based detection loses ground

Prevention of malware download scenarios fell to 50%, a 21-point slide over two years. IOC-based prevention will always trail the threat — it must be reinforced with TTP-based prevention.

71% → 50% ▼ two-year slide

Ransomware prevention deteriorates broadly

Every one of the ten least-prevented families scored 38% or lower, with Play falling from 50% to just 13% — becoming the hardest strain to prevent, even as the overall score rose.

50% → 13% ▼ Play ransomware

Live Webinar

Take the Blue Report findings live

Join Sıla Özeren and Candid Wüest for a session built entirely on the data. They will break down the Blue Report 2026 key findings and explain what the results mean for prevention, logging, and alerting performance.

Live session Blue Report 2026

Sıla Özeren Security Research Engineer, Picus

Candid Wüest Principal Security Advocate, xorlab

Live Webinar Blue Report 2026

Key findings, explained live

Join Sıla Özeren and Candid Wüest for a focused session built entirely on Blue Report 2026 data.

69%Prevention score

58%Log score

14%Alert score