The 2026 digital risk benchmark shows that online threats vary sharply by industry. Financial services face heavy phishing and impersonation pressure. Retail and fashion face counterfeits and fake stores. Meanwhile, technology, gaming, healthcare, manufacturing, and travel face different external digital risks.

Digital risk benchmark is a data-based way to compare online threats across industries, channels, and attack types. It helps companies compare their exposure with wider trends and decide where to focus protection.

The problem continues to grow. For example, the FBI received 1,008,597 internet-crime complaints in 2025. Reported losses reached $20.877 billion. Of those complaints, 191,561 involved phishing or spoofing, 47,794 involved tech or customer support scams, and 22,364 had an AI-related descriptor.

Meanwhile, the 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report analyzed more than 31,000 security incidents and 22,000 confirmed data breaches across 145 countries. Its industry data shows that the attack mix differs across finance, retail, healthcare, entertainment, technology, manufacturing, and other sectors.

Therefore, this digital risk benchmark brings those datasets together with current fraud, counterfeit, and consumer-protection research. The goal is to provide a clearer view of external digital risk in 2026.

Key Takeaways From the 2026 Digital Risk Benchmark

• Financial services: The 2026 DBIR analyzed 3,809 security incidents and 1,300 confirmed breaches. Financial motives appeared in 98% of breaches, while phishing served as an initial access vector in 20%.
• Retail: The report analyzed 997 incidents and 806 confirmed breaches. External actors appeared in 99% of breaches, while third parties played a role in 68%.
• Fashion and luxury: Clothing, footwear, and leather goods made up 62% of seized counterfeit goods in the latest OECD and EUIPO global analysis.
• Gaming and entertainment: The entertainment sector recorded 587 incidents and 483 confirmed breaches. External actors appeared in 86% of breaches, while 89% had a financial motive.
• Technology and SaaS: The information sector recorded 1,703 incidents and 1,099 confirmed breaches. External actors appeared in 89%.
• Healthcare and pharma: The report analyzed 1,492 incidents and 1,438 confirmed breaches. In addition, WHO estimates that at least one in ten medicines in low- and middle-income countries are substandard or falsified.
• Manufacturing: The report analyzed 3,627 incidents and 2,713 confirmed breaches. Third parties played a role in 61% of breaches.
• Travel and transportation: The transportation sector recorded 689 incidents and 652 confirmed breaches. External actors appeared in 99%.

What Does the Digital Risk Benchmark Show?

The data shows that there is no single digital-risk profile for every industry. Attackers change their tactics based on the assets, customers, transactions, and trust relationships that matter most in each sector.

For example, attackers targeting banks can exploit trust to steal money or account credentials. Counterfeiters targeting luxury brands can copy products and brand assets. Meanwhile, attackers targeting software companies may recreate login screens or customer-support pages.

However, several patterns appear across industries.

External attackers dominate many sectors. Social engineering also remains important. In addition, phishing continues to generate large complaint volumes. AI now helps some attackers improve those existing methods rather than create a separate form of cybercrime.

For example, the FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report recorded:

• 1,008,597 complaints
• $20.877 billion in reported losses
• 191,561 phishing and spoofing complaints
• 56,478 non-payment or non-delivery complaints
• 47,794 tech and customer support scam complaints
• 24,768 business email compromise complaints
• 22,364 complaints with an AI-related descriptor

AI-related complaints represented $893.3 million in reported losses. However, companies should not view AI as a standalone threat category. Attackers can use it to support phishing, impersonation, fake websites, fraudulent ads, social engineering, and other established attack methods.

How Does Digital Risk Compare Across Industries?

The most useful comparison is not simply which industry reports the most incidents. Each dataset has different levels of visibility. Industry size also matters. Therefore, teams should examine the attack patterns, motives, threat actors, and external risks that matter most to their own sector.

However, readers should not treat these figures as a league table. The 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report notes that sample size, disclosure rules, and source visibility can affect how industries appear in its dataset.

Why Is Financial Services a High-Risk Digital Environment?

Financial services combine valuable accounts, urgent transactions, personal data, and high levels of customer trust. As a result, banks, fintechs, insurers, and financial platforms remain attractive targets for phishing and impersonation.

The 2026 DBIR analyzed 3,809 financial and insurance incidents, including 1,300 confirmed data breaches.

• External threat actors appeared in 88% of breaches.
• A financial motive appeared in 98%.
• Phishing served as an initial access vector in 20%.
• Credential abuse served as an initial access vector in 15%.
• The human element appeared in 65% of breaches.
• Third parties played a role in 34%.

Meanwhile, consumer fraud data strengthens the picture.

The FTC received more than one million reports of imposter scams in 2025. Consumers reported $3.5 billion in losses. In addition, nearly one in three fraud reports involved impersonation.

Consumers also reported nearly $1 billion in losses to business impersonators. Bank impersonators generated the highest losses within that category.

For more detail, see the FTC’s latest imposter scam analysis.

However, attackers do not always need to breach the real bank.

For example, an attacker can create a fake website, copy a bank’s identity, register a lookalike domain, launch a fake support account, or place a misleading ad. The customer may then trust the scam because they recognize the brand.

Therefore, financial services brand protection should extend beyond the corporate network to the wider digital environment.

What Does the Digital Risk Benchmark Show for Retail and eCommerce?

Retail digital risk now combines cybersecurity with customer-facing fraud, fake stores, counterfeits, malicious ads, and marketplace abuse.

The 2026 DBIR analyzed 997 retail incidents and 806 confirmed breaches.

• External attackers appeared in 99% of breaches.
• A financial motive appeared in 85%.
• Third parties played a role in 68%.
• The human element appeared in 58%.
• Phishing served as an initial access vector in 9%.
• Credential abuse accounted for 14%.

However, breach data captures only part of retail’s online-risk problem.

For example, the FTC found that in 2025, shopping scams were the most common type of scam that began on social media. More than 40% of people who reported losing money to a social-media scam said it began after they ordered something they saw advertised.

In many cases, those ads directed users to unfamiliar sites or sites that copied well-known brands. In addition, FTC data shows social-media scam losses reached $2.1 billion in 2025.

Therefore, the retail threat can form a complete customer journey:

Fraudulent ad → fake store → fake product → fraudulent payment or non-delivery

As a result, brands need visibility across both retail digital risk and marketplace brand protection.

How Large Is the Counterfeit Risk for Fashion and Luxury?

Fashion and luxury remain major counterfeit targets because their products are easy to recognize, high in value, and widely sold online.

The latest OECD and EUIPO global analysis estimates that international trade in counterfeit and pirated goods reached about $467 billion. That equals 2.3% of global imports.

In addition, fashion-related goods make up a large share of seizures.

Clothing, footwear, and leather goods together represented 62% of seized counterfeit goods.

The report also shows a change in how counterfeiters move goods.

For example, shipments with fewer than ten items made up 79% of seizures in 2020–2021. That figure rose from 61% in 2017–2019. Therefore, small parcels and direct-to-consumer shipping now play a larger role.

See the full OECD and EUIPO Mapping Global Trade in Fakes 2025 report.

However, fashion brands do not face risk from one marketplace listing alone.

For example, a counterfeit operator can copy official images, open several seller accounts, advertise on social media, and run a standalone website. Once one asset disappears, another can replace it.

Therefore, connected seller analysis and online counterfeit protection remain important for fashion and apparel brands.

What Are the Biggest Digital Risks for Gaming and Entertainment?

Gaming and entertainment companies face many external threats because users move across social networks, apps, websites, marketplaces, and online communities.

The entertainment sector in the 2026 DBIR recorded:

• 587 security incidents
• 483 confirmed breaches
• External actors in 86% of breaches
• A financial motive in 89%
• Personal data in 45%

In addition, system intrusion, social engineering, and other attack patterns made up 82% of entertainment-sector breaches.

However, those internal-security figures sit beside a wider set of customer-facing risks.

For example, attackers can impersonate gaming brands, create fake account-recovery sites, distribute rogue apps, advertise fake rewards, steal credentials, or pose as support teams.

The FBI’s wider cybercrime data also shows why these tactics matter. In 2025, phishing and spoofing generated 191,561 complaints. That was more than any other crime type listed in the IC3 report.

Therefore, gaming brand protection must cover both account security and fraud that happens outside the official gaming environment.

What Does Digital Risk Look Like for Technology and SaaS?

Technology and SaaS companies face threats built around identity and account access. Attackers can copy login pages, support portals, company domains, executive identities, apps, and trusted messages.

The DBIR’s Information sector, which includes many technology and digital-service businesses, recorded:

• 1,703 incidents
• 1,099 confirmed breaches
• External actors in 89% of breaches
• A financial motive in 84%
• Compromised credentials in 24%

At a broader level, the 2026 DBIR found that 31% of breaches now begin with vulnerability exploitation. This rate moved ahead of credential abuse as the leading initial-access vector.

In addition, the report found that generative AI augments about 15% of attack techniques. For example, attackers use AI to speed up vulnerability research, target selection, social engineering, and malware development.

However, external impersonation creates a different type of risk from an infrastructure breach.

A fake SaaS login page does not need to compromise the real vendor. Instead, it only needs to convince a user that the copied page is genuine.

Therefore, technology brand protection should include phishing domains, fake support, rogue apps, executive impersonation, and cloned digital experiences.

Why Is Healthcare and Pharma Digital Risk Different?

Healthcare and pharmaceutical threats can create patient-safety risks as well as financial, security, and reputation damage.

The 2026 DBIR examined 1,492 healthcare incidents, including 1,438 confirmed breaches.

• External threat actors appeared in 81% of breaches.
• A financial motive appeared in 99%.
• Vulnerability exploitation served as the initial access vector in 20%.
• Phishing served as the initial access vector in 14%.
• The human element appeared in 54%.
• Third parties played a role in 32%.

However, healthcare also faces a very different type of external risk: falsified medical products.

The World Health Organization estimates that at least one in ten medicines in low- and middle-income countries is substandard or falsified. In addition, WHO has received reports involving medicines, vaccines, and diagnostic products from every region of the world.

Countries are estimated to spend about $30.5 billion on substandard and falsified medicines in low- and middle-income markets.

For more detail, see the WHO’s guidance on substandard and falsified medical products.

In addition, online threats can include fake pharmacies, fraudulent ads, fake patient portals, copied medical identities, and phishing websites.

As a result, pharmaceutical brand protection requires monitoring across websites, ads, marketplaces, social media, and other digital channels.

Why Should Manufacturing Companies Monitor External Digital Risk?

Manufacturing combines major cybersecurity exposure with brand, product, distributor, and supply-chain risk.

The 2026 DBIR analyzed:

• 3,627 manufacturing incidents
• 2,713 confirmed breaches
• External actors in 95% of breaches
• A financial motive in 87%
• Vulnerability exploitation as the initial access vector in 38%
• Phishing as the initial access vector in 13%
• Third-party involvement in 61%

In addition, system intrusion, social engineering, and basic web application attacks made up 91% of manufacturing breaches.

However, manufacturers also face threats beyond network compromise.

For example, counterfeit components, fake distributors, copied product catalogs, fraudulent domains, and executive or supplier impersonation can all create external risk.

This matters most for businesses with large dealer, distributor, or supplier networks. In these cases, attackers can copy a trusted business relationship without entering the manufacturer’s network.

Why Are Travel, Sports, and Hospitality Brands Attractive to Scammers?

Travel and event scams exploit urgency, limited supply, high-value purchases, and the need for fast customer support.

The transportation sector recorded 689 incidents and 652 confirmed breaches in the 2026 DBIR.

• External actors appeared in 99% of breaches.
• A financial motive appeared in 89%.
• Attackers compromised credentials in 27%.

However, consumer-facing fraud adds another layer of risk.

For example, in June 2026, the FTC warned travelers about scammers using paid search ads and fake websites that appear to belong to well-known hotels and airlines. These scams can place fake contact details in front of customers who are already searching for help.

Read the FTC’s current guidance on travel scams and fake booking websites.

Rental scams provide another useful example. The FTC reported $65 million in rental-scam losses during the period covered by its 2025 analysis. In addition, about half of people who reported a rental scam in the 12 months ending June 2025 said it began with a fake Facebook ad.

Sports and major events create similar conditions. For example, ticket shortages, merchandise demand, and time pressure can make fake sites and ads more effective.

BrandShield’s own 2026 World Cup research identified more than 10,000 suspicious World Cup-related domains and a 900% increase in fraudulent domains between March and May 2026.

Therefore, these patterns make cross-channel monitoring important for travel and hospitality brands and sports and entertainment organizations.

Which Threat Trends Cut Across Every Industry in 2026?

Phishing, impersonation, social engineering, fake websites, and financially driven attacks appear across many industries. At the same time, AI and social media make some of those threats easier to create and spread.

Phishing remains widespread

For example, the FBI received 191,561 phishing and spoofing complaints in 2025.

Phishing also appears as an initial-access method across several industry datasets:

• 20% of financial-sector breaches
• 14% of healthcare breaches
• 13% of manufacturing breaches
• 9% of retail breaches

However, phishing now extends well beyond email. Fake domains, copied login pages, paid ads, social profiles, QR codes, and messaging platforms can all direct customers to scams.

Therefore, brands need broader online phishing protection.

Impersonation is a multibillion-dollar fraud problem

For example, FTC data shows that consumers reported $3.5 billion in imposter scam losses during 2025.

In addition, business impersonation alone accounted for nearly $1 billion.

Attackers can impersonate a company, executive, employee, customer-support agent, bank, or government agency.

Therefore, brand and executive impersonation protection matters across many industries.

Social media is becoming a major fraud-distribution channel

In 2025, nearly 30% of people who reported losing money to a scam said it began on social media.

In addition, reported losses reached $2.1 billion.

Websites or apps represented 31% of fraud contact methods linked to a reported loss. Meanwhile, social media accounted for 28%.

These channels allow scammers to use many of the same targeting tools as legitimate advertisers.

Therefore, social media scam monitoring and paid ad scam protection are increasingly important parts of external digital risk management.

AI is scaling existing attack methods

The FBI recorded 22,364 AI-related complaints and $893.3 million in associated reported losses in 2025.

Meanwhile, the 2026 DBIR found that generative AI augments about 15% of attack techniques.

For example, AI can help attackers write stronger messages, translate content, generate images, create fake profiles, build websites faster, and support social engineering.

However, the basic threats remain familiar: phishing, impersonation, scams, and fraud.

Why Is Alert Volume a Poor Digital Risk Benchmark?

More alerts do not always mean more risk. Therefore, a useful digital risk benchmark should measure threat severity and business impact, not just the number of findings.

For example:

• A live phishing site collecting bank credentials creates more risk than an inactive trademark mention.
• A fake ad with high visibility creates more risk than an unused domain.
• Fifty counterfeit listings from one network may represent one campaign rather than fifty separate actors.
• An executive impersonation account contacting employees creates more urgency than a dormant profile.

Therefore, organizations should measure:

• Threat type
• Threat severity
• Customer exposure
• Traffic or reach
• Credential or payment collection
• Channels involved
• Connected assets
• Repeat offenders
• Enforcement status
• Time to removal
• Recurrence after enforcement

This is also why BrandShield uses AI.ClusterX threat clustering to identify links between sellers, domains, listings, profiles, ads, and other digital assets.

As a result, teams can look beyond each finding and expose the wider campaign behind it.

How Should Companies Use This Digital Risk Benchmark?

Companies should use the benchmark as a starting point to decide which channels, threat types, and metrics deserve the most attention in their industry.

For example, a financial institution may place phishing, impersonation, and malicious domains near the top of its risk model.

Meanwhile, a fashion company may focus on counterfeit seller networks and fake stores.

A SaaS company may instead focus on copied login pages, customer-support impersonation, fake apps, and credential theft.

Similarly, a pharmaceutical company may need both phishing protection and monitoring for fake pharmacies and falsified products.

However, the goal is not to copy an industry average. Instead, organizations should use public benchmarks to ask better questions about their own exposure.

1. Measure your threat mix

First, determine what share of relevant threats involve phishing, counterfeits, impersonation, fake ads, rogue apps, domains, or other abuse.

2. Measure where threats appear

Next, track marketplaces, websites, search engines, social networks, ads, mobile apps, domains, AI platforms, and other external channels.

3. Separate severity from volume

Then, prioritize threats that can cause financial loss, steal credentials, confuse customers, or damage intellectual property.

4. Identify connected campaigns

In addition, look for shared infrastructure, images, domain patterns, seller details, website templates, and account behavior.

5. Measure enforcement outcomes

Finally, detection should lead to measurable action.

Therefore, track takedown rates, time to removal, recurrence, repeat offenders, and the number of connected assets removed.

Digital Risk Benchmark Methodology

This digital risk benchmark combines current public datasets rather than creating an artificial ranking of industries.

The main sources include:

• 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report: more than 31,000 incidents and 22,000 confirmed breaches across 145 countries. Its dataset covers October 2024 through November 2025.
• FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center 2025 Annual Report: more than one million complaints and $20.877 billion in reported losses.
• Federal Trade Commission 2025–2026 fraud data: consumer fraud, impersonation, social media scams, retail fraud, rental scams, and travel-scam reporting.
• OECD and EUIPO Mapping Global Trade in Fakes 2025: international counterfeit trade and product-category seizure data.
• World Health Organization: research on substandard and falsified medical products.
• BrandShield research: selected examples of external brand abuse where relevant to specific industries.

However, these sources measure different forms of risk. Therefore, readers should not add the incident totals together or use them to claim that one industry is always more dangerous than another.

Instead, the digital risk benchmark highlights the strongest available indicators for the threats that matter most to each sector.

Digital Risk Benchmark FAQ

What is a digital risk benchmark?

A digital risk benchmark is a data-based baseline for comparing external threats across organizations or industries. For example, it can cover phishing, impersonation, counterfeit activity, fraudulent websites, paid ads, rogue apps, credential theft, and other digital risks.

Which industry has the highest digital risk?

No single industry ranks highest across every threat category. For example, finance faces major phishing and impersonation exposure. Retail and fashion face counterfeiting and shopping fraud. Meanwhile, healthcare, technology, manufacturing, gaming, and travel face different threat profiles.

How common is phishing in 2026?

Phishing remains one of the most frequently reported forms of internet crime. For example, the FBI received 191,561 phishing and spoofing complaints in 2025. In addition, the 2026 DBIR identifies phishing as an important initial-access vector across several industries.

How much money is lost to online fraud?

The FBI recorded $20.877 billion in reported internet-crime losses during 2025. Separately, the FTC recorded about $15.9 billion in consumer fraud losses, including $3.5 billion from imposter scams and $7.9 billion from investment scams.

How significant is counterfeit trade?

The OECD and EUIPO estimate international counterfeit trade at about $467 billion, or 2.3% of global imports, based on 2021 trade data. In addition, clothing, footwear, and leather goods accounted for 62% of seized counterfeit items.

How does AI affect digital risk?

AI helps some attackers scale and improve existing threats. For example, the FBI classified 22,364 complaints as AI-related in 2025, representing $893.3 million in reported losses. AI can support phishing, impersonation, fake sites, social engineering, and fraudulent content.

How can companies reduce external digital risk?

Companies need continuous visibility across external channels, clear risk priorities, investigation, threat correlation, and enforcement. Therefore, monitoring should focus on the digital environments that matter most to the company’s industry and customer journey.

What the 2026 Digital Risk Benchmark Means for Brands

The numbers show that digital risk is not limited to one industry or one type of attack.

For example, attackers impersonate financial brands because customers trust them with money.

Meanwhile, counterfeiters copy fashion brands because brand identity gives products value.

Similarly, attackers clone technology companies because users trust their login pages and digital services.

Healthcare organizations also face risk because their identities and products carry high levels of trust.

In addition, gaming, retail, sports, and travel brands operate across customer journeys where urgency, digital payments, social platforms, and third-party channels create more chances for fraud.

However, one issue connects all of these industries: many threats happen in places the brand does not control.

For example, a scammer can launch a fake website without entering your network. A counterfeit seller can use your product images without touching your eCommerce site. An impersonator can contact customers from a social profile you do not own.

Therefore, modern digital risk requires visibility beyond traditional cybersecurity controls.

BrandShield’s Online Brand Protection platform helps organizations detect and remove counterfeits, fraudulent websites, impersonation, marketplace abuse, fake ads, and other customer-facing threats.

In addition, BrandShield’s External Cybersecurity platform helps organizations detect, prioritize, and respond to phishing, malicious websites, impersonation, and related cyber threats beyond the perimeter.

However, the objective is not to find the most threats.

Instead, the goal is to find the threats that matter most, understand how they connect, and remove them before they cause harm.

To see how your organization’s external exposure compares with the threats affecting your industry, request a BrandShield digital risk assessment.

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