Cyber risk intensifies for consumer products as budgets, and threats, rise

Based on insights from the RSM US Middle Market Business Index Special Report: Cybersecurity 2026, consumer products companies are navigating a cybersecurity landscape defined by growing business complexity, heightened threat activity and increasing operational risk. As organizations expand e‑commerce platforms, loyalty programs and supply chain integrations, cybersecurity has become inseparable from business resilience, directly affecting brand trust, uptime and financial performance.

That urgency is showing up in how middle market companies are allocating dollars. According to the survey report, 81% of respondents said they expect their cybersecurity budgets to increase over the coming year, signaling a broad shift in executive priorities. IT spending patterns reinforce that trend: The share of companies allocating 16%−20% of their IT budgets to cybersecurity more than tripled from the prior year, rising from 4% to 13%, while those allocating more than 20% doubled from 2% to 4%. At the same time, the percentage of organizations spending less than 2% on cybersecurity fell sharply (from 11% to 4%).

“Security is no longer an afterthought in the IT spending conversation,” says Peter Ramer, a consumer products senior analyst at RSM US LLP, underscoring how cyber risk management is now a core component of business strategy. 

Key risk areas include third parties, supply chain, AI and more

Despite increased spending, exposure continues to grow, particularly through third‑party and supply chain relationships. Consumer products companies rely on a dense ecosystem of vendors, payment platforms, loyalty programs and logistics providers, each expanding the potential attack surface. Combined with highly visible consumer brands and large volumes of personal data, that complexity makes the sector an attractive target for cybercriminals.

Ransomware remains one of the most disruptive threats, says Ramer, increasingly aimed at operational systems rather than just corporate networks. Attacks that disable point‑of‑sale platforms, order management systems or fulfillment operations can quickly cascade into lost revenue, reputational damage and customer churn. In many cases, organizations still spend more reacting to incidents than preventing them, driving up both cost and risk.

At the same time, emerging technologies are reshaping the threat landscape. As consumer products companies deploy artificial intelligence‑enabled tools and automation, attackers are leveraging AI to scale phishing, social engineering and bot‑driven attacks. Poorly governed AI agents can also introduce unintended data exposure, while employee‑facing scams are becoming harder to detect.

Foundational controls remain critical. “One of the greatest areas where attackers exploit entry points is when multifactor authentication is not put in place,” Ramer notes, pointing to gaps that persist across loyalty platforms and third‑party systems. Ongoing employee training, regular vulnerability assessments and clearly defined incident response plans are equally important, particularly in high‑turnover environments common across consumer markets. 

Regulatory pressure adds another layer of urgency. With 20 states now enforcing comprehensive consumer privacy statutes and federal frameworks that raise the compliance bar, consumer products companies face potential sanctions from multiple sources for a single incident. At its core, cybersecurity in the consumer products space is a customer promise. Middle market companies that fail to keep it will find recovery far more costly than prevention.