Weekly briefing No. 41 published 4 Oct 2026

Research

LeakTrace Research measures what anyone on the internet can see about a business.

Every figure dated and re-run, each with its method: what the public record shows about owner-run firms, sector by sector.

Headline findings

  1. Nearly9 in 10

    dental practices we read have no published rule telling mail servers to refuse mail forged in their name.

    LeakTrace index, readings to 8 October 2026 · 88.4%, read from each firm's public mail records

  2. Nearly5 in 10

    accounting firms have a look-alike of their domain registered and live.

    LeakTrace Research · measured 30 Sep 2026 · 46.4%, common misspellings checked in public DNS

  3. 3 in 10

    accounting firms have a shared address such as info@ in monitored breach databases.

    LeakTrace Research · measured 30 Sep 2026 · 28.9%, shared addresses checked in monitored breach databases
Leaderboards

Forged-email defense by sector

Which professional sectors publish a rule telling mail servers to refuse mail forged in their name. Ranked best first.

No published rule to refuse forged mailLower is better
  1. 1Insurance59.7%
  2. 2Optometry clinics66.7%
  3. 3Law71.3%

LeakTrace index, readings to 8 October 2026

View more

Look-alike domains by sector

Which professional sectors have a look-alike of their domain registered and live. Ranked best first.

Look-alike registered and liveLower is better
  1. 1Dental24.7%
  2. 2Insurance40.4%
  3. 3Law45.0%

LeakTrace Research · Measured 30 Sep 2026

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Research papers

All sectors21.4%Law14.3%Accounting28.9%Insurance18.5%Real estate23.0% Two in ten professional firms have a shared email address in monitored breach databases2 in 10 professional firms have a shared address such as info@ in monitored breach databases. All sectors41.3%Law45.0%Accounting46.4%Insurance40.4%Dental24.7% Four in ten professional firms have a look-alike of their domain already registered4 in 10 professional firms have a look-alike of their domain registered and live. All sectors74.3%Insurance59.7%Optometry clinics66.7%Law71.3%Accounting74.6%Physiotherapy clinics80.3%Real estate88.2%Dental88.4%Veterinary clinics97.3% Three in four of the professional firms we read have no published rule telling mail servers to refuse mail forged in their name3 in 4 of the professional firms we read have no published rule telling mail servers to refuse mail forged in their name No rule to refuse forged mail70.5%No DMARC39.1%Monitor only31.4%No SPF8.8% Seven in ten law and accounting firms have no published rule telling mail servers to refuse mail forged in their name7 in 10 law and accounting firms have no published rule telling mail servers to refuse mail forged in their name.
Look-alike domains by sector · method

Which sectors have a look-alike of their domain registered and live

The sector figures of the published look-alike study, exactly as published, ranked best first: the share of firms in each sector with a common misspelling of their own domain (a letter dropped, doubled, swapped or replaced, a hyphen or a short word added) registered and answering in public DNS, on the same ending, on the day it was measured.

Read the study, measured 30 Sep 2026.

Three measured figures · 18 seconds, no sound

What the video says, card by card. Each figure has its own write-up, with the method and the number of firms measured.

  1. 3 in 4 of the professional firms we read have no published rule telling mail servers to refuse mail forged in their name. LeakTrace index, readings to 8 October 2026.
  2. 4 in 10 professional firms have a look-alike of their domain registered and live. Measured 30 Sep 2026.
  3. 2 in 10 professional firms have a shared address such as info@ in monitored breach databases. Measured 30 Sep 2026.

Last card: the AI defense layer for businesses. Proof, not scores.

1 Sep 2026 · 5 min
Business data exposure briefing
The kinds of business data that are routinely stolen and resold, and what a business can check from the outside today.
Insurance brokers
15 Aug 2026 · 8 min
The Weeks Before the Wire Redirect
How attackers turn a real estate brokerage's public footprint into a redirected closing wire, and why the industry's 'verify verbally' response does not touch the actual chain.
Real estate
12 Aug 2026 · 8 min
The Tax File Nobody Told You Was Public
Attackers spend weeks inside an accounting firm's email before a single message asks for anything. Here is what they extract during that window (tax returns, financial statements, payroll data), how they extract it, and why the industry's 'MFA and backups' response misses the entire attack.
CanadaUnited States
Accounting firms
1 Aug 2026 · 5 min
Business data exposure briefing
The kinds of business data that are routinely stolen and resold, and what a business can check from the outside today.
Medical clinics
21 Jul 2026 · 7 min
The Wire That Never Arrived
Attackers spend weeks inside a real-estate brokerage's email before the closing-day wire lands in the wrong account. Here is what they extract during that window, how they redirect the funds, and why 'MFA and backups' misses the entire attack.
Real estate
20 Jul 2026 · 8 min
The Case File Nobody Told You Was Public
Attackers spend weeks inside a law firm's email before a single message asks for anything. Here is what they extract during that window, how they extract it, and why the industry's 'MFA and backups' response misses the entire attack.
CanadaUnited States
Law firms
16 Jul 2026 · 6 min
The manufacturing cyber exposure where IP theft and ICS both matter
What LeakTrace consistently observes across manufacturers. IP theft, industrial control system exposure, and cascading supply-chain compromise put manufacturing in a threat category with materially different downside than services firms.
Manufacturing firms
16 Jul 2026 · 6 min
The law firm cyber exposure pattern nobody wants to name
What LeakTrace consistently observes across law firms. Solicitor-client privilege obligations plus trust account flows put law firms in a distinctive threat category with materially different downside than other professional services.
Law firms
16 Jul 2026 · 7 min
The pre-sale cyber DD gap in Canadian professional services deals
What LeakTrace consistently observes when running buyer-side style cyber diligence against Canadian professional services firms preparing to sell. The pattern is producing re-pricing losses that sellers rarely recognize as cyber-driven.
Deal advisers
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