The annual Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report is out, and its findings carry direct implications for everyone operating in the credit and collections space. Based on analysis of more than 31,000 security incidents and more than 22,000 confirmed data breaches across 145 countries, the 2026 edition signals a threat environment that is moving faster than most organizations can respond to.
The headline finding is a meaningful shift in how attackers are getting in. Vulnerability exploitation has overtaken stolen credentials as the leading initial access method, now accounting for 31% of breaches compared to 13% for credential abuse. This is a signal to revisit patch management as an organizational priority, not just an IT task. Only 26% of critical vulnerabilities flagged in the federal government’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog were fully remediated in 2025, and the median time to remediate grew from 32 days to 43 days. Attackers are exploiting gaps faster than most security teams can close them.
Third-party risk is the other number demanding attention. Breaches involving a third party jumped to 48% of all incidents, up from 30% the prior year. For an industry that relies heavily on collection software vendors, payment processors, credit bureaus, and cloud-based platforms, a single compromised partner can create exposure across dozens of client organizations simultaneously.
Ransomware remains a constant. It appeared in 48% of all breaches analyzed, and small and midsize businesses, which represent the majority of collection agencies and community lending institutions, accounted for roughly 96% of ransomware victims where organization size was known. The good news, and there is some, is that 69% of ransomware victims declined to pay the ransom, suggesting that backup and recovery investments are paying off across the industry.
The human element is also still very much in play. Verizon found that 62% of breaches involved a human factor. Social engineering attacks are evolving toward mobile-centric tactics, including voice phishing, and engagement rates on mobile phishing simulations ran 40% higher than email-based tests. Employees handling sensitive consumer financial data on mobile devices are a meaningful and underappreciated exposure point.
Finally, the rise of unauthorized AI tool usage inside organizations introduces a new category of data leakage risk. Verizon found that 67% of employees accessing AI services on company devices were using personal, non-corporate accounts. Source code, internal documents, and structured data are being uploaded into external AI platforms without organizational controls in place.
The report’s core message is uncomfortable but familiar: sophisticated tools and large budgets are not what separates secure organizations from compromised ones. Consistent execution of the fundamentals is.
