Research Report

Kirkland, Wash. – October 14, 2026 -- Seventy-seven percent of security leaders expect an attacker to exploit a software vulnerability at their organization within 12 months, while 54% admit their companies knowingly leave high or critical vulnerabilities unpatched at least sometimes, according to a Chainguard report surveying 1,300 security leaders.

The report, titled The AI Exploit Gap, measures the distance between how fast AI-powered tools can find and chain vulnerabilities and how fast human teams can fix them. Ninety-one percent of respondents say AI-accelerated attacks have changed their job more than anything else in the past decade. Ninety-three percent worry their companies cannot remediate AI-driven exploits quickly enough.

Hoboken – October 14, 2026 -- Threat actors weaponized artificial intelligence in 87% of ransomware attacks, and 40% of attacks involved psychological or physical threats against staff, according to the 2026 Ransomware Risk Report published by identity-focused cyber resilience company Semperis. The study surveyed only organizations that were hit by ransomware gangs in the past 12 months.

Attackers followed through on 53% of threats against employees

Bad actors used psychological intimidation in nearly 25% of all attacks across the U.S., UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Singapore, Canada and Australia. In 53% of cases, victims reported that the hackers carried out their threats.

The personal toll was measurable: 23% of victims or family members were swatted, 25% of victims sought psychological and medical treatment, and 24% of victims or families hired personal security.

Washington – October 14, 2026 -- The entry of 5G Home broadband into a market drove cable prices down 17%, saving American households up to $28.5 billion from 2023 through 2025, according to a study commissioned by wireless trade group CTIA.

Cable bills fall roughly $11 a month on standalone plans

The study, authored by James Prieger, Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Pepperdine University, compares cable prices before and after 5G Home entered a market against prices in other markets. It found that competition from 5G Home lowered cable bills by roughly $11 a month on an average standalone plan.

Households that stayed with cable captured up to $20.8 billion of the savings

Nearly three-quarters of the savings went to households that never switched to 5G Home. Those that stayed with cable saved up to $20.8 billion over the 2023-2025 period, as cable providers lowered prices to compete.

NEW ORLEANS – October 14, 2026 -- Across 18 capacity domains, 57% of identified nonprofit needs received no or very little support, according to the first State of Capacity Building report from Catalyst Exchange. The survey sets a national baseline for tracking sector capacity over time.

The report, titled Closing the Capacity Gap, draws on input from 408 nonprofits, 101 intermediaries and 135 funders working in education and youth development. It also uses focus groups and interviews. Catalyst Exchange describes a sector squeezed by rising demand, funding cuts, burnout and AI transformation.

Funders and nonprofits agree on priorities, but money does not follow

Fund development (66%) and revenue strategy (52%) rank as the top nonprofit capacity needs, and funders name the same areas for support. Yet fewer than half of funders report funding capacity building. Only 19% of nonprofits received a grant designated for it in the past year.

Washington – October 14, 2026 -- China installed 295,000 industrial robots in 2024, 54% of the global total, versus 34,200 in the United States, according to the preliminary report of the National Security Commission on Robotics for Advanced Manufacturing, an initiative of the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP).

The Commission is co-chaired by Senator Ted Budd (R-NC), Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and SCSP President Ylli Bajraktari. It finds that the U.S. leads in the technologies forming the "brain" of robotics, including AI, computer vision, autonomy and software. It lacks the scale to deploy robots, produce robotic systems and manufacture critical components domestically.

Houston – October 13, 2026 -- Healthcare professionals spend an average of 86 minutes a day on administrative tasks they believe AI could eliminate or significantly reduce, according to the fifth annual Compass Survey from healthcare operations software provider symplr. Directors and managers report 106 minutes a day, roughly a fifth of the workday.

Core hospital processes remain largely manual

Between 40% and 46% of clinicians, operations and IT respondents describe credentialing, contract management, workforce scheduling and supply chain management as fully manual. Only 2% to 6% call these processes fully automated.

MADRID – October 13, 2026 -- An estimated 6.8 million women across nine countries are experiencing infertility right now, according to the inaugural IVI Institute Fertility Barometer, which also finds that 36% of women with a target age for starting a family had their first child later than desired. IVI Institute, formerly IVI RMA Global, released the study alongside a group-wide rebrand that unites its clinic networks.

Survey of 24,074 women quantifies the gap between desired and actual family size

GfK, a NielsenIQ company, conducted the online survey of women aged 19 to 49 in Canada, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Portugal, the UAE, the U.K. and the U.S. Fieldwork ran from May 16 to July 3, 2026. The margin of error is ±0.63 percentage points at a 95% confidence level, with larger margins among subgroups.

Birmingham, Mich. – October 13, 2026 -- Only 14% of Finance leaders say their AI investments have delivered "enterprise value and decision impact," even though 74% now use AI to reduce manual work, according to OneStream's inaugural Forward Finance Index.

The survey covers 1,300 CFOs and equivalent Finance leaders at mid-market ($500M-$999.9M revenue) and enterprise ($1B-$10B+ revenue) organizations in the U.S., U.K., and France. It benchmarks them across five areas: AI strategy, data, workforce, operations, and IT collaboration.

Only 6% of Finance organizations lead across all five areas

More than half (52%) rank as "Followers," held back by data they cannot fully trust, AI without measurable ROI, limited visibility into operational decisions, disconnected IT roadmaps, and an unprepared workforce. Four in ten executives say data quality issues regularly block or delay AI projects.

Zurich – October 13, 2026 -- Approximately 30% of monitored organizations experienced at least one fake IT support impersonation attempt through Microsoft Teams in the first half of 2026, according to Ontinue's 1H 2026 Threat Intelligence Report. The managed detection and response (MXDR) provider says attackers are gaining scale by exploiting trusted identities, collaboration platforms, software supply chains and routine business workflows rather than by building more sophisticated malware.

The findings draw on incident investigations, threat intelligence research and telemetry from Ontinue's Advanced Threat Operations team.

Plover, Wisconsin – October 12, 2026 -- Women hold approximately 31% of C-suite and executive positions in trucking, but only 2.5% of diesel technician roles, according to the Women In Trucking Association's 2026-27 WIT Index.

The survey ran from November 2025 through April 2026 and drew about 210 respondents. Participating organizations reported demographics, the status of their diversity and inclusion policies, and the share of women in various roles.

Women hold 37.5% of supervisory roles and 29% of board seats

Women account for 37.5% of supervisory leadership positions and 29% of board of directors members among respondents. The C-suite share is approximately 31%.

HR leads functional roles at 76.5% women, while technicians trail at 2.5%

Women make up 76.5% of human resources and talent management roles, 45.5% of dispatchers and 44% of safety positions. Diesel technicians are the outlier: women hold just 2.5% of those roles.