Verizon Business has released its inaugural 2026 Breach Impact Study, a report examining the financial impact of cyber breaches through an analysis of cyber insurance claims.

Developed by the authors of Verizon's annual Data Breach Investigations Report in partnership with CyberAcuView, the study analyzes approximately 70,000 U.S. cyber insurance claims. Of those, roughly 38,000 included recorded losses paid to policyholders, covering insurable cyber incidents from January 2019 through October 2025.

According to the study, the median cost of a breach increased 80% between 2019 and 2024, rising from $61,000 to $110,000. Over the same period, U.S. consumer price inflation increased by approximately 23%, indicating breach costs have grown faster than inflation.

The study identifies business interruption as the fastest-growing source of financial loss. Between 2023 and 2024, business interruption increased from 21% to 32% of known losses, with a median cost of $90,000, the highest among all loss categories. In supply chain and third-party incidents, business interruption accounted for half of all losses.

The findings also show that average loss figures can mask the range of financial impacts. Half of all paid claims exceeded $83,000, while the top 10% exceeded $920,000. The most severe 2.5% of claims surpassed $5 million in losses.

Although software supply chain incidents represented just 2% of claims in the dataset, they produced a median financial impact of $252,666, more than double the overall dataset. Among the most severe cases, the top 2.5% exceeded $100 million in losses.

The report also found that breach costs increase with organization size. Small and midsize businesses experienced a median impact of approximately $38,000, compared with $96,000 for mid-market organizations and $283,000 for large enterprises. The top 2.5% of large enterprise claims exceeded $22 million.

Industry-specific findings highlighted varying financial impacts and attack patterns.

For small and midsize businesses, breach losses reached as much as 7% of total revenue in the most extreme cases, compared with less than 2% for mid-market organizations and large enterprises.

In healthcare, external liability accounted for 23% of total losses, with median liability losses 57% higher than the overall dataset.

Manufacturing ranked among the industries with the highest business interruption losses, posting a median loss of $232,000, or 158% above the overall dataset. Business interruption represented 31% of manufacturing losses, while ransomware accounted for 45% of claims and 69% of total costs.

In retail, business interruption made up 44% of known losses, with a median impact 65% higher than the overall dataset. Third-party incidents accounted for 15% of breaches, the highest share among the industries analyzed.

For public administration, ransomware represented 64% of claims and 79% of total costs.

In education, ransomware accounted for 41% of claims and 60% of costs. Incident response expenses were associated with 85% of claims and represented 53% of overall losses in the sector.

The complete report can be downloaded here.