Ransomware dwell time: what 2026 incident data shows

Across recent incident response engagements, dwell time — the gap between initial access and detection — remains the single biggest driver of blast radius.

Organizations with 24/7 SOC monitoring and tuned detection rules consistently show dwell times measured in hours rather than days.

The common failure pattern isn't a missing tool — it's alert fatigue from poorly tuned detections that bury the signal that mattered.