We stand just a few days away from the dawn of 2026.

In the past months, organizations have prioritized cybersecurity and made strong moves to improve their preparedness, from making a budget for cybersecurity to training employees.

We have seen organizations prioritize cybersecurity and make some strong moves to bolster their preparedness, resilience, and compliance, only to be ousted by cybercriminals from their secure state. The 2025 cyber threat landscape has seen some of the most evolved and never-before-seen techniques and tactics, with threats becoming not just more frequent but also more unpredictable.

Overall, it has been a rollercoaster ride for organizations with data and reputation in the back seat and regulators waiting at the end for them to be prepared with answers to be safe from fines/reputational troubles.

What does 2026 hold for organizations? Let us explore what cybersecurity experts have predicted.

Looking back at the state of cybersecurity in 2025

Here are some key insights reflecting the state of cybersecurity in 2025:

The cost of data breaches decreased by 9%

The cost of data breaches fell from USD 4.8 million in 2024 to USD 4.4 million, reflecting how organizations have improved in terms of identification and containment of breaches. (IBM Cost of data breaches report, 2025)

Staggering rise in third-party breaches

Third-party data breaches doubled to 30% since last year (15%), with the Salesforce data breach being the biggest third-party data breach, affecting 100s of companies worldwide. (Verizon DBIR 2025)

1 in every 6 company ffaced AI driven attacks

AI-driven attacks have surged in 2025 with attackers using malicious/jailbroken GenAI to carry out mass phishing and ransomware attacks (IBM)

A majority of organizations faced a cybersecurity staff shortage

63% of organizations have reported a cybersecurity staff shortage with 19% having reported a significant shortage. (ISC2, Cybersecurity workforce study 2025)

10 Cybersecurity predictions for 2026

2026 brings both a fresh bunch of opportunities for organizations to improve readiness, along with a wave of challenges for them to address before they are exploited by cyber threats that are not just becoming more frequent but also unpredictable.  

Let us explore what it has in store for organizations:

1. Agentic AI will become the new arms race

2025 has shown how cybercriminals are using AI to make their campaigns more frequent, sophisticated, persistent, and unpredictable. Fully automated ransomware threats like Promptlock will become more frequent, with cybercriminals using AI-driven tools like Fraud GPT and Spam GPT to come up with more malicious ransomware strains and sophisticated social engineering campaigns based on sentiment analysis of their targets.

These malicious tools will evolve to help attackers perform reconnaissance, exploit undiscovered vulnerabilities, and engage in multilayered attacks going beyond text using deepfake video and voice. At the same time, defenders will be using agentic AI to automate monitoring, detection, and containment of threats. 2026 will see an Agentic AI arms race between attackers and defenders.

62% of organizations experienced a deepfake attack in 2025 (Gartner)

2. IoT, OT, and Edge will expand the attack surface

As more organizations embrace edge computing, 5G/6G, OT, and IoT in 2026 to boost operational efficiency, productivity, and connectivity, they will also invite cyber threats that exploit weaknesses to carry out massive attacks. Organizations will be at greater risk with increased devices. Cybercriminals will target devices with weak default security to create an entry.

They will look for edge computing clusters with weak security for lateral movement. Cyber attacks like botnets, DDoS, and supply chain attacks will be bigger, involving massive networks of distributed devices with weak security. Organizations will have to prioritize pentesting their IoT, OT, and edge environments, accounting for the vendor risk associated with the manufacturer of the devices.

IoT attacks surged by 42% from previous year (Deepstrike)

3. Third party/Vendor/Supply chain risks will rise

2025 saw some of the biggest third-party breaches, like the Salesforce data breach that involved more than 200 companies.

In 2026, supply chain data breaches will become part of the mainstream news, with threat actors increasingly targeting vendors and third-party providers to pivot to reputable organizations.

Organizations will have to prioritize third-party risk management and require vendors to regularly assess, address, and report the security risks across their posture.

30% of all breaches were third party attacks (Verizon DBIR 2025)

4. Cybercrime will become like a corporate business

Cybercrime-as-a-service has surged with services like phishing-as-a-service and ransomware-as-a-service becoming widely available. Malicious Gen AI-based tools like Fraud GPT, Worm GPT, and Spam GPT are being widely sold on dark web marketplaces than before. Users of these services get affiliate models, subscription-based pricing, and customer support that make it a whole lot easier for them to orchestrate attacks.

In 2026, cybercrime will become much like business units – organized, commoditized, service-oriented, and geographically scattered. Threat actor groups must be seen as business competitors instead of just hackers, and organizations must be prepared for more evolved “products/services.”

There was a 149% increase in ransomware attacks due to R-a-a-S adoption (TechTarget)

5. Cyber insurance will reset

There will be a massive change in cyber insurance with a significant rise in premiums and mandatory security hygiene (ensuring fundamental things like enabling MFA, regular patching, and awareness and training).

Organizations must ensure that they get an optimal coverage that also includes AI and associated risks. It will require them to understand their risk exposure and go beyond checkbox assessments and quantify how much an incident will cost, including downtime, recovery expenses, and losses associated with losing customers.

Forrester has predicted that cyber insurance premiums will rise by 15% in 2026

6. Shadow AI will elevate risks

Shadow AI or tools/agents/assistants in operation without an organization’s authorization or outside its visibility will be common in 2026 as employees independently deploy AI/LLM tools to execute multiple tasks.

SaaS platforms now come with built-in AI features that users can activate without actually knowing the impact, exposing organizations to a range of risks from data exposure to the creation of new attack paths through exposed/compromised AI plugins.

It will increase their exposure to risks to sensitive data as these agents operate autonomously without visibility or approval.

Breach of sensitive data due to the use of Gen AI will become one of the top back-of-the-mind worries for CEOs in 2026.

There was a 68% rise in Shadow AI in modern enterprises (Menlosecurity)

7. Zero trust will become a new baseline

Zero trust will become a baseline in 2026 as hybrid work becomes a standard and identity-based threats grow. Regulators, insurers, and investors will also be looking for the application of the zero-trust approach in an organization before making their decision.

As deepfakes and other identity threats become more frequent in 2026, organizations will have to shift their focus to securing the human, machine, and AI identities as they become primary targets.

They must adopt an adaptive authentication solution that includes analysis of behaviors to proactively identify and address identity-specific risks.

10% of large enterprises will have a mature and measurable zero trust program by 2026 (Gartner)

8. The role of security analysts will change

The role of security analysts will change in 2026 as AI becomes widely adopted, changing the day-to-day roles and tasks. They will direct AI agents for multiple tasks, from threat hunting to incident response.

AI agents will perform tasks like summarizing cases, mapping a detected threat against the MITRE ATT&CK framework, performing data gathering and correlation, and drafting a complete threat report.

It will allow the analysts to focus on high-level analysis and make decisions, while AI focuses on routine work.

66% of organizational leaders said AI/machine learning will have a significant impact on cybersecurity in 2026 (WEF, State of CISO 2025)

9. AI Governance will become a regulation

As AI becomes widely adopted and security risks associated with LLMs and AI-based solutions increase, regulators will create detailed regulations governing the use of AI with input from industry experts.

The regulations will be based on pillars such as the ethical, accountable, and secure use of AI, and will mandate organizations to implement policies for the secure use of AI, requiring users to only use authorized AI solutions with data security guardrails.

Organizations must prepare for such regulations and proactively assess the use of AI solutions and their impact.

In its 2026 cybersecurity predictions, Forrester has reported that Agentic AI deployment will cause public breach and employee dismissals

10. Living-off-the-AI attacks will surge

Attackers will leverage the existing AI security solutions in place to carry out their attacks by manipulating their AI models to skip threat detection and authenticate unauthorized access. They may hide malicious instructions within non-suspicious emails and send poisoned prompts to AI assistants that can leak, modify, or erase data. With poisonous prompts to high-privilege AI, they can orchestrate Confused Deputy attacks in which the trusted service (or deputy) is tricked by an untrusted actor to perform actions.

Gartner research revealed that 29% of leaders reported experiencing attack on enterprise GenAI application infrastructure

To summarize

• Agentic AI will become the new arms race
• IoT, OT, and Edge will expand the attack surface
• Third party/Vendor/Supply chain risks will rise
• Cybercrime will become like a corporate business
• Cyber insurance will reset
• Shadow AI will elevate risks
• Zero trust will become a new baseline
• The role of security analysts will change
• AI governance will become a regulation
• Living-off-the-AI attacks will surge