Cyber risk has surged to the top of the business agenda, with 40% of business leaders saying cyber is the top risk they are unprepared for – up from 23% in 2025, according to a new report from BDO.
BDO’s Global Risk Landscape 2026 report found that cyber risk had jumped as organisations struggle to keep pace with the scale and speed of digital and AI‑driven change.
The research, based on a survey of 500 global C‑suite executives, found that while cyber spending continues to increase, traditional approaches are failing to keep up with increasingly sophisticated threats – particularly as cyber teams are often brought into transformation programmes too late.
The report also found that:
- Crisis is the new normal: 80 per cent say the global risk landscape is more defined by crisis than ever before, and 68 per cent say the speed at which crises are impacting their organisations is increasing (up from 54 per cent a year ago).
- Risk management is becoming less proactive: only nine per cent describe their risk management as “very proactive”, down from 19 per cent in 2025.
AI optimism is increasing, but governance…
