5 Cybersecurity Predictions For 2026 An Industry Insider S Analysis

Bonisiwe Shabane

-Dec 21, 2025, 9:30 PM

5 cybersecurity predictions for 2026 an industry insider s analysis

What if we told you the biggest known vulnerability of 2026 isn’t your tech, but your trust?Welcome to the next era of cyber risk in all its genre-bending, chaotic glory. What sets these trends apart is they’re set to converge across the upcoming year. And in a future that’s sure to test every layer of defense you thought was secure, next year’s threats have gotten personal. Read ahead to learn five emerging trends the Symantec and Carbon Black Threat Hunter team are tracking in 2026. A trend we have seen in multiple attacks this year is attackers gaining access to victim networks not by leveraging zero-day vulnerabilities or using sophisticated software supply chain attacks, but rather by taking advantage... The breach of the Salesforce instances of multiple companies and organizations worldwide by an attack group called Shiny Hunters in mid-2025 was a prime example of this.

The wave of attacks impacted numerous well known companies. These attacks were conducted by the Shiny Hunters extortion group, which targeted Salesforce customers with vishing (voice phishing) attacks to compromise credentials or to trick employees into authorizing a malicious OAuth app in order... The attackers would then steal data and attempt to extract a ransom from the affected company. These attacks echo similar attacks we saw being carried out by the Scattered Spider attack group, which is also known to primarily gain access to victim networks by carrying out sophisticated social engineering attacks. They compromised numerous casinos in Las Vegas in 2023, while in 2025, they deployed the DragonForce ransomware onto the networks of multiple well-known UK retailers. 2026 is already on the horizon, and if you haven’t already been thinking about how cybersecurity will shift next year, now is the time to start.

Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to hear security leaders reflect on 2025’s cyber trends. Now, five experts share their predictions for 2026 below. The explosive growth in AI usage represents the single greatest operational threat to organizations, putting intellectual property (IP) and customer data at serious risk. While AI adoption is growing rapidly, enterprises are increasingly exposed to risks related to data security, third‑party AI tools, shadow AI usage, and governance issues. When sensitive IP or Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is entered into unsanctioned AI systems, the data may be used for model training, stored externally, or exposed in unexpected ways, leading to compliance, IP, and... Organizations must monitor not only sanctioned AI tools but also the growing ecosystem of “micro‑AI” extensions and plugins that can quietly extract or transmit data.

A global KPMG and University of Melbourne survey of 48,340 individuals across 47 countries found that 48% of employees admitted uploading company data into public AI tools, and only 47% received formal AI training,... In 2026, three regulatory shifts will dominate the compliance and security agenda. The EU AI Act’s full release in August will require organizations to classify systems by risk, complete conformity assessments, and maintain documentation that reshapes how AI is deployed. The perimeter is gone. Credentials are no longer sufficient. And security can no longer rely on static controls in a dynamic threat environment.

Cybersecurity has always evolved in response to attacker innovation, but the pace of change over the last few years has been unprecedented—particularly with the emergence of weaponized AI to scale phishing, deepfakes, and voice... As we head toward 2026, several structural shifts are becoming impossible to ignore. Traditional security assumptions are breaking down, threat actors are scaling faster than defenders, and identity—not infrastructure—has become the primary battleground. Here are five predictions that will shape the cybersecurity landscape in 2026: 1. Identity Will Fully Replace the Network as the Primary Attack Surface

Enterprises Will Start Treating AI Systems as Insider Threats. Josh Taylor, Lead Security Analyst, Fortra As agents gain system-level permissions to act across email, file storage, and identity platforms, companies will need to monitor machine behavior for privilege misuse, data leakage, etc. The shift happens when organizations realize their AI assistants have broader access than most employees and operate outside traditional user behavior analytics. The first time an AI agent gets compromised through prompt injection or a supply chain attack and starts quietly exfiltrating customer data under the guise of “helping users,” organizations will realize they built privileged... John Wilson, Senior Fellow, Threat Research, Fortra

By Adam Metcalfe-Pearce (additional contributions by David Warburton, Ken Arora, Darien Kindlund, Malcolm Heath & Keiron Shepherd) In what is becoming a bit of a tradition at F5 Labs, we once again dust off our crystal ball and wave our collective hands wildly above it as we dive into our cybersecurity... The pace of technological change and advancement continues to accelerate as the potential of AI is realized, the benefits of which are being utilized both for good and bad. Not to be overly dramatic, but the real-world implications on the cybersecurity landscape of these advancements are staggering and thus reflected in our predictions for next year. Cybersecurity professionals will have a whole new vector to consider and will need to be prepared to defend at a scale never before seen. With that out of the way, we can lighten the mood and take a look at how we did in our 2025 predictions.

Keeping up with our past performance, we’ve done quite well again. Okay we might have missed mind-controlled tech wearables, health-monitoring toilets and neuromorphic brain hacking, but otherwise our record remains strong. Our 2024 predictions scored an impressive 80% success rate, and yes, we were marking our own homework, but nevertheless a truly impressive feat in a dynamic year of emerging tech and a diverse set... With cybersecurity, the only constant is change. The speed of that change is accelerating exponentially. The security perimeter, once defined by a firewall, has dissolved into a complex lattice of cloud environments, hybrid workforces, and rapidly integrated technologies like Operational Technology (OT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

This year, we've witnessed the commoditization of sophisticated attack techniques, the relentless pressure of supply chain vulnerabilities, and a clear shift in adversary focus from data theft to systemic disruption. For practitioners and enterprise leaders, keeping pace is no longer enough; anticipating the next wave of threats and regulatory demands is essential to building a resilient security posture, not just a reactive one. As the calendar turns, it's critical to cut through the noise and identify the strategic shifts that will define the battleground for the next 12 months. To help you navigate this period of heightened uncertainty, we have assembled commentary from leading subject matter experts (SMEs)—from frontline security practitioners at major enterprises to researchers and solution architects from top vendor firms. This collective intelligence moves beyond generalized fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) to offer targeted insights on everything from the evolution of phishing campaigns powered by Large Language Models to the strategic pivot toward "Secure... What follows is an indispensable guide to the challenges and opportunities ahead.

Each prediction has been curated to inform your budget planning, refine your defensive strategies, and ensure your team is focused on the highest-impact threats. As organizations accelerate toward 2026, the cybersecurity landscape is becoming more complex, more unpredictable, and more heavily influenced by fast-evolving technologies like generative AI. Threat actors are moving with unprecedented speed, regulatory demands are increasing, and the tools and techniques needed to defend modern environments are shifting just as rapidly. To help security leaders navigate what’s ahead, WatchGuard’s Threat Lab has released its annual Cybersecurity Predictions for 2026, a forward-looking analysis of the key trends, threat evolutions, and industry shifts expected to define the... Below is a snapshot of several major insights identified in this year’s report. Traditional encryption-based ransomware is expected to decline as threat actors turn their focus toward pure extortion and data theft.

Open-source package repositories may begin implementing automated, AI-driven defenses to help identify and mitigate malicious activity in software supply chains. Emerging regulations, including the EU Cyber Resilience Act, are accelerating the industry’s adoption of secure-by-design development principles—making proactive security a requirement rather than an option. As cyberthreats grow more intelligent, automated and persistent, 2026 will challenge organisations to rethink how they defend people, platforms and critical data in an era defined by Artificial Intelligence-driven attacks and relentless digital change. We hear from leading experts who outline what they think 2026 will hold. Cybersecurity in 2026 will be shaped by a collision of accelerating innovation, expanding attack surfaces and a threat landscape that is evolving faster than most organisations can comfortably track. As Artificial Intelligence becomes deeply embedded across business operations and Digital Transformation initiatives push data and workloads further into cloud and Edge Computing environments, adversaries are adapting just as quickly.

From more automated cyberattacks and highly targeted social engineering to growing pressure on critical infrastructure and software supply chains, the year ahead is expected to test the resilience of security teams at every level. Against this backdrop, industry leaders are rethinking strategies, investments and operating models to stay ahead of emerging cyberthreats while balancing risk, regulation and business growth.

5 Cybersecurity Predictions For 2026 An Industry Insider S Analysis

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