Almost No Organizations Fully Trust Their Cybersecurity Vendors, New Study Finds
Only 5% of businesses report complete confidence in the partners protecting their systems, raising alarms about operational risk and board-level decision-making.
A sweeping new global study has laid bare a crisis of confidence at the heart of the cybersecurity industry: the overwhelming majority of organizations do not fully trust the vendors responsible for defending them.
The Cybersecurity Trust Reality 2026 report, commissioned by global security firm Sophos and conducted independently across 5,000 organizations in 17 countries, found that 95% of respondents lack full trust in their cybersecurity vendors, a finding that researchers say has serious implications for how companies manage risk, make purchasing decisions, and respond to threats.
The problem is not merely one of perception. According to the study, 79% of organizations struggle to evaluate the trustworthiness of new cybersecurity partners, and more than six in ten, 62%, find it difficult to assess even their existing vendors. That uncertainty is taking a psychological toll: over half of respondents (51%) said their anxiety about the likelihood of a major cyber incident had grown as a direct result of their lack of confidence in their security partners.
For Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs), the fallout is practical as much as it is emotional. Trust gaps slow decision-making, create operational friction, and contribute to higher vendor turnover, costs that organizations can ill afford at a time of escalating cyber threats and tightening regulatory requirements.
“Trust is not an abstract concept in cybersecurity, it’s a measurable risk factor,” said Ross McKerchar, CISO at Sophos. “When organizations can’t independently verify a vendor’s security maturity, transparency, and incident handling practices, that uncertainty flows directly into boardrooms and security strategies.”
The report identifies a clear consensus on what it takes to earn trust: evidence, not assurances. Verifiable security artifacts, such as independent assessments, recognized certifications, and demonstrated operational maturity, are ranked as the single greatest driver of vendor confidence.
While CISOs prioritize transparency during incidents and consistent technical performance, boards and senior leadership tend to place greater weight on independent validation and third-party analyst endorsements. The common thread, the study concludes, is that organizations want transparency backed by proof.
“Respondents cited a lack of accessible, sufficiently detailed information as the primary barrier to making confident trust assessments,” McKerchar added. “Trust must be earned continuously through transparency, accountability, and independent validation.”
As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly embedded in cybersecurity tools and workflows, the trust question is growing more complex. Organizations are no longer asking only whether a security solution works; they are also scrutinizing whether AI is being deployed responsibly, transparently, and under appropriate governance frameworks.
Phil Harris, Research Director for Governance, Risk and Compliance Solutions at IDC, said regulatory pressure is accelerating the shift. “Organizations must be able to demonstrate due diligence in vendor selection, especially where AI is involved,” he said. “Trust is shifting from a marketing message to a defensible compliance requirement.”
The findings reframe trust not as a soft brand attribute but as a hard strategic requirement. For cybersecurity vendors, the message is stark: the era of expecting clients to simply take their word for it is over.
“CISOs are being asked to prove trust, not assume it,” McKerchar said. “Cybersecurity providers must do the same.”
Sophos, which published the report alongside its own Trust Centre, a resource designed to help security leaders make faster, more defensible vendor decisions, says the industry must move toward a model of continuous, verifiable accountability.
The Cybersecurity Trust Reality 2026 report draws on responses from organizations across 17 countries to examine how trust, or the lack of it, is reshaping cybersecurity strategy at every level, from the security operations center to the boardroom.
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