top of page
Search

Cyber Security Trends for 2026

  • Writer: Ben de la Salle
    Ben de la Salle
  • Dec 29, 2025
  • 4 min read

As we head into 2026, organisations face a rapidly evolving threat landscape shaped by technology shifts, sophisticated attacks, and tightening regulation. CIOs, CISOs and CROs must anticipate these changes to safeguard assets and build operational resilience. In this Cyber Security Trends 2026 article we identify the key trends for 2026, and what to do next.


Cyber Security Trends 2026


1) AI Arms Race: Attackers and Defenders Level Up

Artificial intelligence is accelerating both offence and defence. Attackers use AI to scale phishing, generate convincing social engineering, and probe controls. Defenders increasingly deploy AI-driven monitoring, anomaly detection and response to cut dwell time and limit impact. IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach 2025 found organisations with extensive AI and automation saved an average of US$1.9m per breach and shortened the breach lifecycle significantly.


Action:

  • Assess AI readiness across your security stack, including use cases, controls and “shadow AI” risks.

  • Implement AI governance (access controls, model monitoring, prompt/data protections).


2) Deepfake & Synthetic Identity Threats Go Mainstream

Deepfakes—synthetic audio/video/text that convincingly mimic real people—make social engineering more persuasive. A notable 2024 case in Hong Kong saw a finance employee duped into wiring US$25.6m after a multi-participant video meeting in which all other attendees were AI-generated deepfakes.


Action:

  • Introduce call-back/secondary verification for high-risk instructions (payments, access approvals).

  • Deploy deepfake/synthetic media detection and biometric verification controls; explore content provenance tooling.

  • Update security awareness to include synthetic media threats with role-specific scenarios.


3) Quantum-Safe Security Moves from Planning to Migration

Quantum computing poses a long-term risk to today’s public-key cryptography. In 2024, NIST finalised the first set of post-quantum standards (Kyber for key establishment; Dilithium and SPHINCS+ for signatures). The UK’s NCSC has now issued migration timelines: conduct discovery and planning by 2028, prioritised migration by 2031, and complete migration by 2035—with crypto-agility throughout.


Action:

  • Build a cryptographic inventory; identify long-lived sensitive data at risk of “harvest-now, decrypt-later”.

  • Adopt crypto-agile architectures and plan phased migration to NIST-standardised PQC.


4) Cloud & SaaS Concentration Risk Becomes a Board Priority

Growing dependence on a handful of hyperscale providers creates systemic risk: one outage can ripple across thousands of organisations. The CrowdStrike July 2024 incident—caused by a faulty Falcon sensor configuration update—led to ~8.5 million Windows devices crashing and global disruption.


Action:

  • Diversify critical workloads and vendor relationships; design failover beyond a single provider.

  • Include third-party SaaS and CDN scenarios in resilience testing and tabletop exercises.


5) The Human Factor Still Dominates

Despite tooling advances, phishing, social engineering and process flaws continue to drive breaches.


Action:

  • Make security awareness continuous, role-based and scenario-driven (e.g., payment fraud, supplier change, deepfake validation).

  • Embed “human-in-the-loop” controls for high-risk workflows (funds transfer, access elevation).


6) Regulation Tightens Globally

EU NIS2 applies from Oct 2024 with ongoing national transposition and enforcement, expanding scope and incident reporting expectations. EU DORA applies from 17 Jan 2025, harmonising ICT risk management, major incident reporting, resilience testing, and critical third-party oversight in financial services. US SEC rules require disclosure of material cybersecurity incidents on Form 8-K within four business days of materiality determination, plus annual risk/governance disclosure.


Action:

  • Assign named accountability to track and implement NIS2/DORA/SEC requirements; rehearse incident disclosure and cross-border reporting.


7) Geopolitics & Nation-State Activity Intensify

State-aligned espionage is increasing across telecoms, logistics and manufacturing, while hacktivist DDoS campaigns dominate incident volume—highlighting the operational noise and the need for resilience.


Action:

  • Strengthen threat intelligence consumption and sharing.

  • Increase supplier due diligence (software, cloud, MSPs) and crisis response readiness for operational disruption events.


8) Ransomware Evolves: Backups, Cloud, and Extortion

Ransomware continues to adapt: multi-extortion, targeting backups, and expanding into cloud and SaaS environments.


Action:

  • Test immutable/offline backups, incident playbooks and tabletop exercises that simulate double/triple extortion and supply-chain ransomware.

  • Close known/exploitable vulnerabilities quickly; validate EDR hardening and MFA resilience against AiTM.


Practical Steps for Security Leaders:

  • Map AI in your security stack; mitigate shadow AI and enforce governance.

  • Run resilience exercises: ransomware, deepfake-enabled fraud, and SaaS/CDN outages.

  • Plan quantum-safe migration for long-lived data; adopt crypto-agility.

  • Strengthen identity management (continuous authentication, passkeys), and harden MFA against AiTM attacks.

  • Prioritise staff training as an ongoing activity with scenario-based modules.

  • Monitor regulatory change and rehearse incident disclosure (NIS2/DORA/SEC).


Areas to Research Further:

  • AI-driven attack and defence techniques

  • Deepfake detection and verification tools

  • Post-quantum cryptography standards

  • Supply chain and SaaS risk assessment

  • Regulatory frameworks (NIS2, DORA, etc.)


Conclusion:

The 2026 security landscape will reward agility, investment in people and technology, and a proactive approach to privacy and resilience. Organisations that lead on AI governance, quantum-safe planning, cloud concentration risk management, and regulatory readiness will be best positioned to thrive amid uncertainty.


References & Further Reading



Our related services.

A wide, letterbox-shaped infographic banner with a high-tech, cyberpunk-inspired design. “Post-Quantum Cryptography” (featuring quantum lock and encryption motifs). The background uses neon accents and futuristic elements, with no company names or logos present. The overall look is clean, modern, and ideal for a cybersecurity consulting blog header.
A wide, letterbox-shaped infographic banner with a high-tech, cyberpunk-inspired design. “Operational Resilience” (showing digital shields and resilient infrastructure icons). The background uses neon accents and futuristic elements, with no company names or logos present. The overall look is clean, modern, and ideal for a cybersecurity consulting blog header.
A wide, letterbox-shaped infographic banner with a high-tech, cyberpunk-inspired design. “Capability as a Service” (depicting a diverse professional team and digital dashboards). The background uses neon accents and futuristic elements, with no company names or logos present. The overall look is clean, modern, and ideal for a cybersecurity consulting blog header.

bottom of page