The cybersecurity landscape in 2026 is being shaped by rapid technological evolution, AI-driven threats, geopolitical instability, and increasing digital complexity. Across industry reports, a consistent picture emerges: autonomy and identity are becoming the new battlegrounds of cyberspace, predominantly due to the use of AI in both offensive and defensive maneuvers. In this article, we will provide an evidence-backed breakdown of the most significant trends expected to dominate the year, sourced from a wide variety of experts and industry leaders.

AI - The Hero and the Villain

In 2026, artificial intelligence is simultaneously the attacker’s most scalable weapon, and the defender's most pivotal defence; assessments from both industry and security researchers converge on this point. The World Economic Forum’s "Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2026" reports that 94% of those surveyed expect AI to be the most significant driver of change in the year ahead, while also flagging AI vulnerabilities as the fastest‑growing area of risk, reflecting a landscape in which automation amplifies both detection and exploitation. On the offensive side, adversaries increasingly deploy agentic AI that conducts reconnaissance, crafts tailor-made lures, writes and adapts payloads, and reacts to defenses autonomously. Defenders are responding in kind by integrating AI into SOC workflows, thereby increasing the efficiency of detection and remediation techniques. Curation of the most ideal cybersecurity-related AI models will be a key point of research for companies and for criminal outfits such as ransomware groups.

Zero-Trust Monitoring and Continuous Authentication

Per INE Security, identity will become the core of cyber defence. Although identity security is an extremely important factor, and infiltration by credential reuse remain one of an attacker's most powerful tools, the landscape is shifting in 2026 due to a number of factors, but none quite as influential as the use of agentic AI in the workplace. In a number of companies, the number of non-human identities now outnumbers employees. These agentic AI are managed with their own credentials and clearances, which all need to be carefully managed - though the most dangerous implementations of AI are those given heightened privileges in order to carry out broad-reaching server tasks. These account privileges can be exploited just the same as human credentials.

An answer to this, which will be pushed by cybersecurity vendors in 2026, is the use of continuous authentication. This is a concept where privileges are assigned and revoked much more dynamically depending on the task at hand (termed 'dynamic access control'), and an account's authentication status is monitored continuously, as opposed to the currently-prevalent single sign-on (SSO) framework where an account may log in and remain that way for the entire day. This works by collecting a rich data sample of an employee's normal everyday activity, and breaking their log-in session when an anomaly to the norm is detected. To achieve this, identity services may be moved to the core of the business for centralised management.

Ransomware Shifts from Encryption to Interference

With regards to ransomware, we expect a continuation of the trends noticed in 2025. Ransomware is expected to remain the most financially disruptive category of cybercrime. While the use of encryption as a lever for extortion in ransomware may plateau in some sectors, training and advisory briefings for 2026 indicate that affiliates now seek maximize the disruption and downtime caused by their attacks, turning incidents into acute operational crises rather than purely data‑access problems. This was evidenced in 2025 in the various cloud provider attacks that occurred. Predictions from security vendors and threat labs anticipate a continued rise of data theft and double or triple extortion tactics this year, with a tilt toward supply‑chain leverage and blackmail when encryption is less effective.

Additionally, ransomware attacks are anticipated to increase by 40% when compared to 2024. In real numbers, this could mean up to an additional 2000 publicly-named data breaches by the end of this year. In 2025, the increase was 34%. Researchers have indicated that this increase is not only due to the weaponisation of AI in carrying out attacks, but in the vulnerabilities introduced by AI itself. One such example that has been noticed by hobbyist hackers is a massive uptick in websites put together using AI by people who may not have the familiarity or resources at their disposal to build robust websites, resulting in weak encryption, no encryption, and websites that are vulnerable to rudimentary XSS and SQL injection. Weaker websites will be easy pickings for ransomware crews, who will in 2026 also have AI that can detect and exploit these weaknesses.

Deepfakes Undermine Trust at Scale

The industrialization of synthetic media transforms fraud and social engineering. Reporting on the period between 2023 and 2025 illustrates a dramatic surge in deepfake activity, with attackers weaponizing realistic voice and video impersonation in a departure from what were once email‑only scams. Expert panels warn that in 2026, AI‑driven impersonation will study and mimic user behavior across whole cloud estates, making malicious activity blend seamlessly with the rhythms of legitimate work. This erodes the reliability of human verification and raises the bar for procedural controls, driving adoption of media‑forensics tooling, stronger verification, and the continued emphasising of cultural “pause‑and‑verify” norms in executive and finance processes.

For more on this, including some real-world examples of deepfakes, refer back to our previous articles on the subject such as 'The Dangers of Deepfakes'.

Zero Trust becomes an Operating Model

Zero Trust policies will continue to become organisation-wide doctrines that applies to users, devices, applications, and data flows. Analysis by practitioners has shown that effective Zero Trust programs integrate continuous authentication, context‑aware access, and AI‑assisted behavior analytics, materially suppressing incident rates relative to perimeter‑centric models. Concretely, Zero Trust Network Access is poised to supersede legacy VPNs for remote connectivity, a shift driven by finer‑grained policy, reduced lateral movement, and improved user experience - all trends highlighted by threat‑lab predictions and enterprise adoption patterns. The throughline is that Zero Trust in 2026 is less a product set and more an operating model anchored in the assignment of 'least privilege'.

Quantum Risk - Still "Maybe?"

Quantum computing’s practical timetable remains debated, but its security implications already demand action. Executive guidance anticipates accelerated adoption of quantum‑resistant algorithms in the public sector during 2026, advising private organizations to inventory cryptographic dependencies and plan for extensive refresh cycles across hardware, firmware, applications, and key management. Data stolen under today’s schemes may be decrypted in the near future, creating long‑tail exposure if migrations lag. For security leaders, the post‑quantum roadmap - discovery, prioritization, piloting, and staged rollouts - must begin before regulatory deadlines force rushed, error‑prone changes.

Geopolitics and Strategic Cyber Risk

Finally, cyber risk in 2026 is inseparable from geopolitics. The WEF places geopolitically motivated activity at the top of risk factors that will shape risk to enterprises. Threat intelligence forecasts anticipate more explicit alignment between criminal collectives and geopolitical blocs, with operations calibrated to political narratives and regional priorities, while long‑dwell, low‑noise campaigns by nation‑state actors persist for strategic advantage. This convergence compels closer public‑private collaboration, more rigorous threat‑informed defense, and executive‑level scenario planning that fuses cyber, legal, and geopolitical lenses.

Conclusion

While some trends from 2025 will continue, AI and geopolitical stresses will continue to change the cybersecurity landscape throughout 2026, possibly in ways we have not yet foreseen. The rapid development in agentic competency, monitoring and data sampling capability and security methodology has created a perfect storm for what may be a turbulent year, characterised by a constant need to respond to new threats; internal and external, human and machine. As always, WhiteBlueOcean encourages your continued vigilance during this time, and implores you to stay up-to-date on the latest security research.

Sources

https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-cybersecurity-outlook-2026/in-full/3-the-trends-reshaping-cybersecurity/#3-the-trends-reshaping-cybersecurity

https://tenhats.com/ransomware-attacks-are-skyrocketing-in-2026-heres-how-to-respond/

https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/threat-intelligence/cybersecurity-forecast-2026/

https://www.wavestone.com/en/insight/continuous-identity-zero-trust/

http://whiteblueocean.com/newsroom/the-dangers-of-deepfakes/

https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-cybersecurity-outlook-2026/in-full/executive-summary-6efae97d74/

The information contained in this article is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice and is not guaranteed to be accurate, complete, reliable, current or error-free.