In musical notation, “al niente” means fading until sound is barely perceptible, usually to end a significant piece of music such as the ending of Tchaikovsky’s reflective and somber sixth symphony. And that is how the cybersecurity risk ratings market is likely to proceed over the coming months. Ratings will not fade away to nothing overnight, but their influence will diminish as the intelligence that drives risk reduction becomes the primary source of value for vendors and users alike. In 2021, when I last authored a Forrester Wave™ covering cyber risk ratings, I said that this market wasn’t ready for enterprise prime time. While these platforms provided plenty of data and some insight, they lacked the ability to translate those signals into action. With the publication of The Forrester Wave™: Cybersecurity Risk Ratings Platforms, Q2 2026 this week, that limitation became indisputably clear. Reference customers I spoke to, along with vendors themselves, are now looking beyond ratings as an outcome. Instead, they are focused on how the data they’ve been using can drive actual risk reduction.

Full report : Cyber Risk Ratings Fade Out; Actionable Intelligence Takes The Spotlight.