WHY a near-miss database could boost information sharing is the core argument of Arielle Waldman’s Dark Reading feature from RSAC 2026, where Wendy Nather and Bob Lord urged greater transparency around close calls alongside breaches. They described a near miss as any incident that almost happened but was stopped by a control or luck, and argued that aggregating these stories could provide a valuable, non-punitive evidence base for regulators and the industry.
A voluntary reporting channel, possibly confidential or anonymised with safe harbour from contractual obligations, could help shift near misses from embarrassment to learning, according to the authors. The idea is to publish trends and lessons without naming organisations, enabling more organisations to share what almost occurred, what stopped it, and which controls mattered.
This approach would, they say, foster trust between individuals and organisations and move away from the blame game that can inhibit useful information sharing, according to Dark Reading. March 25, 2026 is the article date, with RSAC 2026 running from March 23–26 in San Francisco, as noted in the piece.