New Research Finds Configuration Drift is Driving Cybersecurity Incidents Across 97% of Organizations
The study, commissioned by Reach Security, reveals widespread misconfigurations, slow remediation cycles, and manual approaches to drift management, highlighting the urgent need for preemptive approaches that continuously validate security controls.
San Francisco, CA. April 15, 2026 – Reach Security, an AI-native security company focused on giving customers a single interface to understand and operate security controls at scale, today unveiled new research that exposes the scale and persistence of configuration drift across modern cybersecurity environments. It reveals that nearly every organization has suffered a breach or near miss in the past year due to misconfigured security tools.
The findings highlight what security leaders increasingly recognize as the configuration drift problem: the gradual deviation of security controls from their intended configuration as environments change. Software updates, policy adjustments, feature releases, and operational modifications continuously alter the performance and coverage of security tools, often without a systematic way to validate the impact of changes.
The report shows that configuration drift is now a near‑universal problem, with 971% of organizations reporting incidents linked to misconfigurations in the last 12 months. This widespread risk is driven in large part by the sheer number of tools in use: organizations surveyed now operate an average of 352 distinct cybersecurity products, with large enterprises and public sector bodies managing even more. As stacks grow, maintaining consistent, secure configurations becomes increasingly difficult, and the likelihood of drift rises sharply.
“Configuration drift is one of the most under-recognized risks in modern cybersecurity,” said Garrett Hamilton, CEO and founder of Reach Security. “Security tools are constantly changing due to updates, new features, and operational adjustments. Over time, those changes create drift that quietly weakens defenses. Organizations need a continuous way to validate that the controls they depend on are still working as intended.”
Investment favors reactive detection and response measures
For more than a decade, cybersecurity investment has focused primarily on detection and response. The study found that 72% of budgets are allocated to these reactive measures3, while only 28% is directed toward proactive configuration management. However, industry analysts increasingly expect the next phase of cybersecurity spending to shift toward preemptive security. Gartner predicts that, by 2030, preemptive cybersecurity solutions will account for 50% of IT security spending. The findings from this study suggest configuration drift will be a major driver of that transition.
The research also highlights that configuration management practices remain relatively immature. On average, organizations review their configurations just 6.5 times per month4, and it takes more than eight days5 to remediate identified issues. These delays create long exposure windows, during which attackers can exploit misaligned settings or outdated controls. Even in sectors where remediation is faster, the data shows no corresponding reduction in breaches, suggesting that teams are often forced to prioritize lower‑impact fixes due to alert fatigue and performance metrics that reward activity rather than risk reduction.
Manual and compliance-driven drift detection dominates
Manual processes continue to dominate how organizations detect configuration drift. Most rely on periodic audits, manual reviews, and penetration tests, with limited adoption of automation. This approach is increasingly unsustainable as environments scale, and it contributes to both higher operational costs and inconsistent outcomes. Governance and visibility challenges further complicate the picture, with many organizations struggling to track changes made outside formal controls, keep pace with compliance demands, or access real‑time configuration data across their toolsets.
Jay Wilson, CIO and CISO from Reach Security customer, Insurity, comments: “We often say it takes one bad click to create an incident, but with drift risk, it takes no clicks! Not having a program in place to identify and remediate configuration risk is the equivalent of leaving the front door unlocked and just hoping the bad guys don’t open it.”
The rise of AI-driven security operations may also accelerate the underlying causes of configuration drift. As organizations deploy automation and AI-assisted remediation across dozens of security tools, the volume and speed of configuration changes increase dramatically. Without continuous validation and guardrails, these automated changes can unintentionally introduce new drift across environments. In this environment, organizations increasingly need automated ways to detect, prioritize, and remediate drift before it becomes exploitable exposure.
To download the full research report, click here: https://www.reach.security/drift-research-report
About Reach Security
Reach Security is defining AI-native exposure management by bridging the gap between identifying security risks and taking action to fix them. The platform uncovers misconfigurations, control weaknesses, and other exposures, then drives prioritized, guided remediation at scale. By integrating with existing security tools, Reach delivers clarity, automation, and operational value in minutes - helping organizations reduce risk and maximize the impact of their current investments. For more information, please visit: www.reach.security.
About Insurity
Insurity is a leading provider of cloud-based software for insurance carriers, brokers, and MGAs. Insurity is trusted by 22 of the top 25 P&C carriers and 7 of the top 10 MGAs in the US and has over 400 cloud-based deployments. Through its best-in-class digital platform, unrivaled industry experience, and the industry’s most robust analytics offerings, Insurity is uniquely positioned to deliver exceptional value, empowering customers to focus on their core businesses, optimize their operations, and provide superior policyholder experiences. Insurity is a portfolio company of GI Partners and TA Associates. For more information, visit www.insurity.com.
Methodology
The research was conducted by Opinion Matters, among a sample of 250 Cybersecurity Professionals (aged 25+) in the US working in companies employing 2000+ people in FinServ, Retail, Public Sector, Healthcare and Critical National Infrastructure sectors. Natural fallout within those sectors. The data was collected between 15.12.2025 - 22.12.2025. Opinion Matters abides by and employs members of the Market Research Society and follows the MRS code of conduct and ESOMAR principles. Opinion Matters is also a member of the British Polling Council.
Reach Security PR Contact
Paula Elliott
Managing Director
C8 Consulting Ltd
reachsecurity@c8consulting.co.uk
1 Inverse of ‘We have not experienced any incidents or near misses related to misconfiguration in the last 12 months’
2 Mean: (No. of distinct cyber security products or tools)
3 Combines ‘Right of boom (i.e. tools / products that help us recover from attacks)’ and ‘Center of boom (i.e. tools / products that help us detect and respond to attacks)’
4 Mean: (Times a month excl. "Only when we suffer a breach in a particular tool", "Only during audits or compliance assessments")
5 Mean: (No. of days excl. "My organization doesn't have a consistent remediation timeframe", "My organization hasn't remediated a misconfiguration or incident of drift")
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