New research reveals a 1-trillion-attribute threat landscape driven by machine speed and scale, and high-density credential consolidation.
LOS ALTOS, CA, UNITED STATES, February 12, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Constella, the leader in Identity Risk Intelligence, today announced the release of its flagship 2026 Identity Breach Report. The report details a fundamental shift in the cyber threat landscape, moving from the mass collection of data to the industrialized weaponization of identity at machine speed and scale, with sophisticated attribute correlation.
The Era of the “Attackable” Identity
The 2026 report highlights a critical divergence in data trends: while unique identifiers grew by only 11% in 2025, the total volume of records surged by 135%. This “Identity Density Gap” signifies that adversaries are no longer just looking for new victims; they are building richer, high-fidelity profiles of existing ones.
By correlating an average of 429 billion attributes, including phone numbers, corporate hierarchies, and personal interests, threat actors can now execute autonomous, multi-channel impersonation attacks that bypass traditional MFA and legacy defenses.
“The ‘plaintext problem’ has evolved,” says Alberto Casares, CTO at Constella. “It is no longer a primary metric of insecure enterprise storage. Instead, it reflects an industrialized pipeline where infostealers exfiltrate credentials directly from browsers, bypassing hashing entirely, while GPU-optimized cracking farms convert historical hash sets into actionable, clear-text weapon libraries at a global scale.”
Key Findings from the 2026 Report:
• Surge in Breaches Containing PII: A 661% increase in breaches containing PII indicates that 95% of ingested records are now ready for immediate, automated exploitation.
• The Plaintext Crisis: 68.89% of all breached credentials were found to be stored in plaintext, a staggering 261% increase year-over-year.
• Agentic AI & Industrialized Detection: Constella utilized Agentic AI automation to expand detection by 159%, hunting over 567,000 breaches in 2025.
• The Identity Density Gap: While unique identifiers grew by only 11%, the total volume of records surged by 135%.
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The Industrialization of Identity: Defending Against Threats at Machine Speed and Scale
To coincide with the report launch, Constella will host an executive panel on February 26th to discuss the operationalization of this data and the move toward an Identity Risk Posture.
Panelists include:
• Andres Andreu, CEO, Constella: A veteran security leader, Andres provides the strategic vision for meeting machine-scale threats with machine-scale intelligence.
• Alberto Casares, CTO, Constella: Alberto oversees the analysis of industrialized cybercrime pipelines and the exfiltration tactics of modern infostealers.
• Hector Monsegur, Cybersecurity Researcher & Chief Research Officer, SafeHill: Known formerly as “Sabu” and the mastermind behind LulzSec, Hector now uses his raw insider perspective to help organizations neutralize high-profile threats and manage threat exposure.
• Eamonn Maguire, Director of Engineering for AI & ML, Proton: Eamonn holds a DPhil from Oxford and a postdoc from CERN; he has spent the last five years at Proton combating abuse and account takeover while leading the development of public-facing AI features like Proton Scribe and Lumo.
“Traditional defenses are no longer sufficient because the threat is increasingly driven by legitimate accounts being compromised and used for impersonation from real inboxes,” notes the report. “Organizations must shift from event-based security to a model of continuous identity vigilance”.
About Constella Intelligence
Constella is a global leader in Identity Risk Intelligence. Powered by the world’s largest breach and infostealer data lake, spanning over one trillion attributes across 125+ countries and 50+ languages, Constella empowers organizations to detect, investigate, and respond to threats linked to exposed personal data. Enterprises, managed service providers, and law enforcement agencies worldwide rely on Constella to strengthen identity posture, fuel threat intelligence, and defeat digital risk. | www.constella.ai
Media Contact: Christine Castro
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